Lisbon, July 31, 2025 (Lusa) - The Air France-KLM group announced on Thursday that it remains interested in the privatisation of TAP, following the announcement that the Portuguese airline will open up 44.9% of its capital to investors, and that it is continuing to analyse whether the deal makes financial sense.

“Our interest in TAP remains, we are continuing to study whether it makes financial sense to invest, from a network perspective, and in terms of discussions and developing negotiations with the owners of that company, we look forward to commenting at a later stage,” said Air France-KLM government president Benjamin Smith at a press conference on the Franco-Dutch group’s results.

When journalists asked him about the conditions set out in the privatisation tender, which the government expects to announce next week, and about the factors that will guide the group’s decision to proceed with a bid, Benjamin Smith replied that “it’s quite complex”.

“This is a business decision, and it must be clear that any investment in TAP would be a path to improving margins, and that is really the deciding factor,” he said.

For Air France-KLM, “whatever the conditions” of the Portuguese government and the European Commission, interest remains if the group is confident that the deal will be beneficial.

“We are obviously interested only if the circumstances are right and the risks surrounding the deal are manageable,” he stressed.

When asked about the process of acquiring a stake in the Spanish private airline Air Europa, the Franco-Dutch group said it had withdrawn from the deal.

“Achieving a majority stake was extremely important to us, and because the situation now points to a different outcome, we have stopped all discussions with Air Europa,” said Benjamin Smith.

The Air France-KLM group posted a profit of €401 million in the first half of the year, compared with a loss of €314 million in the same period of 2024.

MPE/ADB // ADB.

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