Portugal airline TAP’s profit drops on forex losses, higher wage costs

LISBON (Reuters) – Portugal’s flag carrier TAP reported a 35% slump in third-quarter net profit on Monday to 118 million euros ($124 million), hurt by foreign exchange losses and a big jump in wage costs.

Operating costs rose 6.5% at the airline, which is slated for privatisation, to 1.05 billion euros. That was driven by a 26% surge in wage costs after the reversal of pay cuts imposed under a tough restructuring plan following a pandemic-induced bailout.

The airline’s operating income rose 2% to 1.284 billion euros on a 0.5% increase in passenger revenues. Passenger numbers rose 1.3% to around 4.6 million in the quarter and TAP said bookings for the fourth quarter were slightly higher than a year ago.

Chief Executive Luis Rodrigues said management was pleased with the performance, “despite the two major challenges we faced: the difficult situation of managing European airspace, and significant currency devaluations.”

TAP’s recurring earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 4.8% to 372 million euros and its EBITDA margin – a measure of profitability – fell to 29% from 31% a year ago.

Portugal’s new centre-right government plans to resume TAP’s privatisation in 2025 and said it had received interest from over a dozen potential buyers, including Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and British Airways owner IAG.

($1 = 0.9465 euros)

(Reporting by Patrícia Vicente Rua; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Bernadette Baum)