Lufthansa to become new TAP shareholder, Portuguese government announces

Lufthansa has won the race to privatise TAP. The prime minister announced that the airline's first privatisation process has been completed.

The Portuguese government announced, after Wednesday's Council of Ministers meeting, that German airline Lufthansa will be the new shareholder in TAP, as part of the reprivatisation of the Portuguese carrier.

At the end of September, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa submitted their final bids to acquire 44.9% of the Portuguese airline's share capital, according to Parpública, the state shareholdings management company, at the time.

The process also reserves 5% of the company's share capital for purchase by employees**.** However, under the decree-law on TAP's privatisation, published in August and quoted here by Lusa, (source in Portuguese) the selected private investor – in this case Lufthansa – may also take up any shares not bought by staff. The remaining stake will continue to be held by the state.

According to the national business press, (source in Portuguese) TAP posted a loss of 99.2 million euros in the first half of 2026, a deterioration of 40% compared with the previous year.

The minister of finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, said last week that the privatisation process would only be completed within 18 to 24 months, that is, in 2028, after authorisation from the European Commission's Directorate-General for Competition (DGComp).

*Story being updated