18.5.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
L 139/51
(204) The Commission thus considers that in the absence of restructuring aid averting the discontinuation of TAP Air Portugal’s activities, not only travellers but also the travel business community would entirely depend on whether a combination of low cost carriers and long-haul carriers focused on point-to-point connections within the Union and the with the rest of the world in the 92 destinations that TAP Air Portugal offered before its restructuring would be able and willing to establish the same services in frequency and geographic scope, in particular with North America, Latin America and Africa (recital 15).
Third parties – in particular, business partners, such as travel agencies, tour operators, major hotel groups, ticketing agencies and suppliers, in addition to national and foreign governmental bodies, including bodies promoting tourism and commercial or cultural exchanges – have confirmed and corroborate the Commission’s finding in the opening decision that a market exit of TAP Air Portugal would risk causing loss of these connections (recital 100).
(205) In order to replicate TAP Air Portugal’s role, competitors would need to build and establish network of destinations, which would take a considerable amount of time and could risk not be achieved at all with the same services in frequency and geographic scope.
In this respect, the Commission notes that the objective of the restructuring aid is to avoid that TAP Air Portugal goes out of business due to the difficulties it has been experiencing and which were acutely aggravated by the COVID-19 crisis.
(206) The concrete routes making up TAP Air Portugal’s network in 2019 before the pandemic are at present reduced in the presence of restrictive travel measures put in place on health grounds to limit the spread of the virus by the Portuguese authorities.
However, the forecasts of traffic recovery by IATA referred to in the opening decision, which no party put into question, point at demand recovery earlier than 2025 (recital 223).
In such a setting, in the foreseeable scenario of demand for air transport services and connectivity in Portugal, TAP Air Portugal’s network –or an equally dense one– would be key as it was before the pandemic to meet future demand, especially in all or some of the routes where TAP Air Portugal was the only airline operating [...] of [...] routes in summer season and [...] out of [...] routes in winter season (recitals 15 and 16).
(207) As regards a hypothetical network replicating TAP Air Portugal’s, it is highly unlikely that a combination of existing legacy or low-cost carriers would be both willing and able to build within a reasonable timeframe the required network connections, in particular to Portuguese-speaking countries, to take over TAP Air Portugal’s role in connecting Portugal with the rest of the world.
Indeed, none of the two air carriers that has intervened has duly substantiated the willingness and ability to develop a similar national transport network or plans to develop a similar connectivity and have only generically referred to other airlines not intervening in the proceedings that could partly replicate TAP Air Portugal’s network, in their view.
Likewise, whilst the studies submitted show growth of and competition from low cost carriers (recital 105), they do not explain, let alone demonstrate that TAP Air Portugal’s services and network could be replicated or substituted with near certainty by one carrier or specific combinations thereof.
On the contrary, as set out in recitals 100 and 132, many third parties which rely on them have voiced concerns regarding a possible loss of TAP Air Portugal’s services.
The information provided in the course of the formal investigation, therefore, confirms the Commission’s finding that there is indeed a concrete risk of an immediate failure of the beneficiary to meet its payment obligations, thus leading to a risk of disruption of the economic activity of air transport services provided TAP Air Portugal.
(208) Hence, the failure of the beneficiary would in turn risk disrupting an important transport service providing international and nation-wide connectivity and network -connecting mainland Portugal and its islands, as well as the Portuguese-speaking community overseas- which is hard to replicate for other suppliers as set out in point 44(b) of the R&R Guidelines.
The aid supports an undertaking with a systemic role
(209) The aid also seeks to avert the risk of exit of an undertaking that performs an important service with a systemic role in Portugal within the meaning of point 44(c) of the R&R Guidelines.