18.5.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
L 139/53
(216) The other largest airlines in Portugal (Ryanair, EasyJet) provide connectivity between Portugal and other Member States of the Union only and their business model excludes long-haul intercontinental flights.
Other major EU air carriers offering intercontinental connections from Lisbon operate a hub-and-spoke model.
That means that instead of providing direct flights to overseas destinations from Lisbon airport, they would rather transfer passengers from Portugal to their hubs in other Member States such as Orly/Roissy, Schiphol, Frankfurt or Munich before transporting them to such destinations.
This in turn would importantly extend the overall duration of flights from Portugal to western or southern destinations.
(217) Hence, both as employer and as central element in the economic chain for many other Portuguese undertakings, the beneficiary can be considered as un undertaking with a systemic role pursuant to point 44(c) of the R&R Guidelines.
(218) In the light of the above, the Commission therefore concludes that the aid contributes to the development of the economic activity of provision of air transport services connecting Portugal in that it allows to maintain an important service that could risk not being replicated in its entirety or to broadly similar extent and without social hardship by competitors in the short to medium term, with potential negative consequences on the larger economy of Portugal, ensuing the current crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic (point 44(b) and (c) of the R&R Guidelines).
6.4.1.2.
R e st r u c t u r in g pl a n an d r et ur n to l ong-te r m vi a bil i ty c on tr i bu tin g to t he deve l opm e nt of t h e e co n om i c a c ti v ity or ar ea
(219) In addition, under point 46 of the R&R Guidelines, granting of a restructuring aid must be conditional on implementation of a restructuring plan that would restore the viability of the beneficiary.
The remediation of the causes that led to the difficulty of the beneficiary, by facilitating its return to long-term viability, is a necessary condition for the restructuring aid to serve the development of the economic activity(ies) and areas where the beneficiary operates.
The restructuring aid supports a wide-ranging restructuring plan encompassing the entire perimeter of activities of TAP SGPS and of TAP Air Portugal.
(220) Under points 45 to 48 of the R&R Guidelines, restructuring aid should only be granted to support a realistic, coherent and far-reaching restructuring plan, the measures of which must be designed to restore long-term viability in a reasonable timescale, excluding any further aid beyond the one supporting the beneficiary’s restructuring plan.
The restructuring plan must outline how the proposed restructuring measures will remedy the beneficiary’s underlying problems.
(221) The results of the restructuring must be demonstrated in a variety of scenarios, in particular by identifying performance parameters and the main foreseeable risk factors.
The return to viability of the beneficiary must result in an appropriate return on capital invested after covering costs, without depending on optimistic assumptions about factors such as variations of price or demand.
Long-term viability is achieved when an undertaking is able to provide an appropriate projected return on capital after having covered all its costs including depreciation and financial charges and is also able to compete in the marketplace on its own merits.
(222) In this section, the Commission will first assess the credibility of the assumptions underlying the beneficiary’s restructuring plan and then the evidence of the beneficiary’s return to viability at the end of the restructuring plan.