TAP Air Portugal suffered a second-quarter loss due to high fuel prices, the airline said Monday, with the airline’s privatization to Air France-KLM or Lufthansa expected to be wrapped up soon. The company recorded a net loss of 59.3 million euros (US$68.8 million) in the three months to the end of June, compared to a profit of 38.3 million euros in the same period last year. While TAP carried a record 8.2 million passengers and took in record revenue of just over two billion euros over the first half of the year, higher fuel costs due to the war in the Middle East had a negative impact of 99.2 million euros, the company said. Thanks to the “solidity of demand across our entire network”, the airline was “able to mitigate the significant impact of the sharp increase in fuel prices”, chief executive Luis Rodrigues said in a statement. TAP, which was renationalized in 2020 to stem losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, is in the final stages of being reprivatized. Both Air France-KLM and Lufthansa said in July they had submitted bids to acquire a controlling stake in the airline, with the government expected to announce the result in the coming days
