Lisbon, Jan. 23, 2026 (Lusa) - The former chief executive officer (CEO) of TAP, Christine Ourmières-Widener, on Friday called for "justice" in relation to her dismissal in 2023, allegedly without grounds, by the socialist government led by António Costa, a case she claims reveals "structural" problems in public governance.
In an article in the weekly newspaper Expresso about her dismissal, which led her to take legal action against TAP, the manager states that it is a matter of "demanding justice and respect for compliance with Portuguese and European law" rather than "asking for leniency" or "claiming recognition".
"But above all, [it is] about recognising what this case reveals about the functioning of public governance in Portugal. When difficult reforms are delegated, but their political cost is not taken on; when the results are appropriate, but responsibility becomes disposable; when management is tolerated while useful and dismissed when it becomes inconvenient, the problem ceases to be individual. It becomes structural," she says.
In May 2025, TAP filed an appeal to overturn the decision of the lawsuit filed by the former executive president to proceed to trial in the Lisbon Civil Court.
According to documents consulted by Lusa, Christine Ourmières-Widener's lawsuit against TAP, filed in September 2023, is thus pending with no date yet set for the trial to begin.
"When the decision is postponed indefinitely, time ceases to be neutral. It takes on political, legal and, worst of all, human weight," says the manager in the article in Expresso.
Christine Ourmières-Winder's lawsuit challenges her dismissal for just cause announced by former minister of finance Fernando Medina and João Galamba, former minister of infrastructure, on 6 March 2023. The basis for the decision, as explained at the time by ministers, was the opinion of the Inspectorate-General of Finance (IGF) on the controversial €500,000 compensation paid to Alexandra Reis.
The report considered the payment to Alexandra Reis "illegal" and pointed to Christine Ourmières-Widener and Manuel Beja, former chairman of the TAP Board of Directors, also dismissed for just cause, as those responsible for signing the agreement for Alexandra Reis' departure in February 2022, which violated the Public Manager statute.
This conclusion was refuted several times by the manager, including when she was heard by the TAP Commission of Investigation, arguing that it was a "political decision".
With regard to the amount of compensation requested by the manager, who according to the French press was dismissed in January from the leadership of Air Caraïbes and French Bee, the calculations involve the figures she considers she is entitled to until the end of the contract (in 2025), and performance bonuses after leading TAP to profits in 2022, which had not happened for five years and was almost three years ahead of the targets set in the restructuring plan agreed with Brussels.
In addition, it includes a portion for having been dismissed without complying with the 180-day notice period and for reputational damage.
TAP's accounts, known in the defence's argument in January 2024, point to a total sum of €432,000.
In the counter-argument, the airline's defence team, led by Luís Rodrigues, argues that the former executive president held positions in other companies at the same time, which would violate the rules of Public Manager.
It accuses the manager of allowing a conflict of interest with the company that hired her husband and attempted to provide services to the airline, causing "serious reputational risks" to the carrier.
Ourmières-Widener was hired to chair TAP, where she joined in June 2021, in a process led by the then socialist Minister of Infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos.
She replaced Antonoaldo Neves, chosen by private shareholder David Neeleman, who was removed following the pandemic and the state's takeover of the carrier.
In the Expresso article, the manager claims to have been "publicly accused of unfounded criminal intentions" and "publicly dismissed, live on television, by two ministers", Fernando Medina and João Galamba, as well as being persecuted: "they set fire to my car".
Arguing that no illegalities or mismanagement were alleged, and that under her leadership TAP presented positive operational and financial results despite the difficulties, she maintains that her removal was politically motivated, at the height of the crisis triggered by the disclosure of the compensation paid to former director Alexandra Reis, which she claims was evidenced in wiretaps of António Costa.
"Years later, wiretaps were made public that crystallise this change in a simple and brutal expression: “If this becomes hell, it's her or us.” The phrase was uttered by the then prime minister in a telephone conversation with the Minister of Infrastructure, she says.
"I am not quoting the then prime minister as a personal vendetta, but as the exact moment when the decision ceased to be guided by the management of the company and began to respond to a logic of political convenience and survival, culminating in a dismissal without just cause," she stresses.
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