Several carriers have expressed an interest in taking over TAP Portugal's Porto regional European route network the majority will be curtailed at the end of next month.
Thus far, Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) and SATA Internacional (Ponta Delgada) have said they would be willing to assume some, if not all, of the routes out of Portugal's second largest city. Last month, TAP announced it would be terminating PGA Portugalia Airlines-operated flights from Porto to Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa, Brussels National, and Barcelona El Prat on account of their poor financial performance.
The announcement has triggered an angry response from Porto's mayor Rui Moreira who has threatened a local government boycott of TAP. Moreira claims the move is aimed at centralizing the national carrier's operations at its Lisbon hub at the expense of the rest of the country.
