TAP Air Portugal CEO outlines challenges amid privatization process

If an appropriate partner is found and privatization proceeds as planned, it would mark another instance of consolidation within European aviation. Rodrigues commented on this trend: "I think consolidation is inevitable, and it’s a positive development for the industry [if not for customers]. The lack of [airline] scale comes at a huge cost. We will be improving the situation over the next few years."

A significant part of TAP's value lies in its network with Brazil. Data from Cirium Diio shows that for October-December 2025, TAP operates 27.8% of flights between Europe and Brazil—the highest share among carriers on those routes. TAP serves 13 Brazilian cities from Europe; eight are destinations without service from other European airlines. "Brazil is probably the top reason for another airline to buy us. It is what the airline groups are keen to secure," said Rodrigues.

Lisbon’s airport capacity remains a major constraint due to slot shortages—a challenge faced by both TAP and competitors such as JetBlue—and no new airport project appears imminent. Rodrigues explained: "I have a lot of work to do in the current network that’ll underpin our focus in the next few years. There will be some new routes, but we’re dealing with significant constraints in Lisbon. We can’t expand much, so we have to be extremely careful with what we add."

TAP’s fleet size was capped under its restructuring plan approved by the European Commission in December 2021; this restriction ends after 2025. However, according to Rodrigues: "Once it goes away, we effectively have an infrastructure cap—we have no slots available at Lisbon. There’s no point growing the fleet in the future if we can’t grow flights."

With most services operating through Lisbon—93.3%—the lack of slots significantly limits expansion opportunities there or at other airports like Porto, Faro, and Funchal. Nonetheless, Porto may offer new prospects for growth as it becomes more important within TAP's network strategy: "Until now, we did not consider Porto to be a hub, but it could become a mini hub for us. It’s now our biggest growth opportunity." He noted that TAP's new Porto-Boston route launched in May 2025 has performed well.