According to the Union of Pilots Civil Aviation Authority (SPAC), the carrier's management is trying to attribute possible cancellations and schedule disruptions to a large number of parental leaves from its employees. In fact, “Portuguese” there are simply not enough pilots, flight attendants and… aircraft. And this is a constant risk factor, and parental leave has nothing to do with it.
As explained by Portugal News, the airline reported through the media that about 40 pilots and 110 cabin crew, who, according to the law, are entitled to take leave child care will exercise this right in December.
“Legislation governing parental leave has not changed this year, and we are now faced with an attempt to prepare public opinion for the possible cancellation of more than 400 flights between November and December,” — noted in SPAC.
In addition, the Trade Union doubts the quantitative data given by the authorities: the absence of 40 pilots cannot become a global problem of the “universal” scale with a total number of specialists of 1,200 people. “TAP will never be able to hide the fact that there is a chronic shortage of pilots, flight attendants and aircraft.”
An estimated 60 flights were canceled due to a three-day apron strike at Lisbon airport. 90 percent of the staff at Lisbon and Porto air harbors participated in the action.
In early August, the Portuguese authorities issued a travel warning to travelers. The latter were urged to avoid flights due to long queues at airports, as well as flight cancellations and delays.
Despite all the negative factors, Portuguese airports managed to serve a large number of passengers in the first half of this year. Compared to the same period in 2021, the growth was 344 percent, and the final figure stood at around 24.3 million travelers.
According to INE, the number of travelers who arrived in the first half of this year is still below the level , which existed before the pandemic, reaching 12.8 percent, despite the fact that the travel and tourism sector in Portugal is gradually improving.