The Workers’ Committee of Azores Airlines revealed today that the president of SATA resigned because the Government of the Azores “did not offer the necessary conditions” for the administration to continue developing the “proposed project”.
In an internal communication, to which the Lusa agency had access, the Workers’ Committee (CT) said that, on Tuesday, after a meeting with the board of directors (CA), Teresa Gonçalves “directly communicated” the decision to leave the presidency of the SATA group to prevent employees from being “informed only through the media”.
“However, the president clarified that the decision was due to the fact that the Regional Government of the Azores did not offer the necessary conditions to continue the development of the project that the CA proposed to carry out”, advances the CT.
In the internal note, the CT states that it will request “an urgent meeting with the president of the Regional Government”, the social democrat José Manuel Bolieiro.
“We want a SATA with a future and, to this end, professional managers are needed, who maintain the good direction we are following, with significant positive results, far beyond what is required by the European Union for the restructuring plan”, reads the statement .
At the meeting with CT, where the departure of the financial director (CFO) at the end of this month was also revealed, the administration made workers “up to date with the company’s financial situation”.
On Tuesday, the Regional Government announced that the president of the SATA group, Teresa Gonçalves, resigned from her position for “personal reasons”.
To journalists, the president of the Government of the Azores stated that Teresa Gonçalves resigned for “personal and contextual reasons” and assured that there will be no procedures suspended due to changes in administration.
Teresa Gonçalves’ resignation took place four days after the final decision of the jury in the public tender for the privatization of Azores Airlines (the airline responsible for connections between the Azores and abroad) was announced.
The jury, led by economist Augusto Mateus, maintained the decision to accept only one competitor in the final report, but admitted reservations regarding the ability of the Newtour/MS Aviation consortium to ensure the company’s viability.
Teresa Gonçalves took office as president of SATA (a group that includes SATA Air Açores and Azores Airlines) in April 2023, after the departure of Luís Rodrigues to lead TAP.
In June 2022, the European Commission approved Portuguese state aid to support the airline’s restructuring of 453.25 million euros in loans and state guarantees, providing for measures such as a reorganization of the structure and the divestment of a controlling stake (51 %).