TAP boss says Gulf carriers interested in Portuguese link to Brazil

Pinto was speaking at the Airline Business World Air Forum in Amsterdam. Air Tramsport Intelligence (ATI) reported that this is the first time the airline, which is likely to be privatised next year, has been linked with interest from the Middle East and quoted Pinto as saying that the airline's dominant market position on routes between Europe and Brazil makes it an attractive proposition for potential buyers.

"Privatisation is our next challenge," he told ATI, with a key hurdle to demonstrate that its location on the "edge of Europe" is not a disadvantage but a strategic advantage to capture the fast-growing Brazilian market.

In a decade, TAP has seen its traffic between Brazil and Portugal growing from 300,000 passengers annually to 1.4 million in 2010, said Pinto. "In my opinion we are on the best edge of Europe," he said. "We are the only airline that can do a flight to Brazil and come back on the same day with the same aircraft."

"Whoever wants to be interested in this market should be interested in TAP," he added.

The airline has recently begun a code-sharing agreement with Etihad, the UAE's national carrier.