The airline TAP Air Portugal announced on Wednesday the cancellation of 360 flights in anticipation of a two-day strike by cabin crew scheduled for December 8 and 9 to protest against wage cuts.
"
In order to protect our customers and so that they are not in uncertainty, we have decided to cancel 360 flights on the days of December 8 and 9
", declared the general manager of TAP, the French Christine Ourmières-Widener , during a press conference.
Despite efforts to extend the discussions, “
it was not possible
”, regretted Christine Ourmières-Widener, specifying that the cancellations announced on Wednesday affect some 50,000 passengers and generate a loss of around 8 million euros.
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“
It is not an easy decision to make, but it is a solution so that our customers do not go to the airport in vain and there is panic
,” she added.
The Portuguese airline group, whose difficulties have increased with the Covid-19 pandemic, was urgently completely renationalised in 2020, in exchange for the application of a restructuring plan imposed by Brussels.
Since then, the Portuguese socialist government has announced its intention to reprivatize the carrier, arousing the interest of the Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and IAG groups (parent company of British Airways and Iberia in particular), acknowledged Christine Ourmières-Widener in a recent interview. .
