LISBON (Reuters) – The CEO of the British Airways owner IAG, Luis Gallego, said on Wednesday the upcoming privatisation of Portugal’s TAP airline “could be interesting” for his company depending on the conditions.
Portugal’s government is expected to approve the legal framework for the privatisation of state-owned airline TAP on Thursday.
It has said it intends to maintain a strategic stake in the carrier.
“We are always open to have great companies, brands in our portfolio. We want to see the conditions of TAP privatisation, we think it could be interesting for us,” Gallego told a conference in Lisbon.
IAG also owns Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling.
At least two other major global players – Lufthansa and Air France-KLM – have so far shown an interest in TAP.
TAP CEO Luis Rodrigues told the same event he expected Thursday to be a “big day” for the company, adding: “I think it (privatisation) is going to work fine” as the airline expected to post positive results for the second consecutive year after swinging to a profit in 2022.
IAG’s Gallego also said demand for travel was “very, very strong”, particularly from the corporate sector as it continued to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that the recovery of corporate demand in Spain was happening faster than in Britain.
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves, writing by Andrei Khalip)
