"The priority is to consolidate the existing markets, namely Brazil, North America and Africa," said the executive president of TAP.

Christine Ourmières-Widener highlighted that TAP's main selling points at the moment are Portugal and Brazil, with the South American country being even “stronger”, due to the reopening of borders.

For the official, the greatest difficulty, at the moment, “is the uncertainty”, caused by fluctuations in demand in the face of the pandemic, to which TAP's restructuring plan is added, whose process is being analysed by the European Commission.

Asked whether TAP should not follow the example of Italy, where the restructuring of Alitalia involved reducing the size of the company, Christine Ourmières-Widener said that she wishes “the best” for her Italian colleagues, but that, so far, their plan is not succeeding.

“I am very pragmatic. The [restructuring] plan assumes industry best practices in cost restructuring and revenue improvement. What we need now is to make it happen”, she stressed, adding that she understands the investment of Portugal and its taxpayers in TAP and that the entire company feels the obligation to “give back to the country”.

The executive president of TAP explained that she still has no indication of when there will be a decision from the European Commission, but said she is hoping that "it will be as soon as possible".