In an article in Expresso about her removal, which led to a lawsuit against TAP, the manager states that she is demanding “justice and respect for Portuguese and European law”, and not asking for “indulgence” or “recognition”.
The former executive president (CEO) of TAP, Christine Ourmières-Widener, complained this Friday “justice” in view of his dismissal in 2023, allegedly without basis, by the government led by António Costa (PS), a process that claims to reveal problems “structural” in public governance.
In an article in the weekly Expresso regarding his dismissal, which led to him taking legal action against TAP, the management company claims to be concerned “demand justice, and respect for compliance with Portuguese and European law”, more than “ask for indulgence” or “claim recognition”.
“But, above all, [trata-se] to recognize what this case reveals about the functioning of public governance. When difficult reforms are delegated, but their political cost is not assumed; when results are appropriate but responsibility becomes disposable; When management is tolerated when it is useful and removed when it becomes uncomfortable, the problem is no longer individual. It becomes structural”, he says.
In May 2025, TAP filed an appeal to revoke the decision of the case brought by the former executive president to proceed to trial at the Civil Court of Lisbon.
According to the documents consulted by Lusa, Christine Ourmières-Widener’s case against TAP, advanced in September 2023, It is therefore pending with no date yet for the trial to begin.
“When the decision is postponed indefinitely, time stops being neutral. It starts to have political, legal and, worst of all, human weight”, states the manager in the article in Expresso.
Former CEO says it was a “political decision”
Christine Ourmières-Winder’s lawsuit challenges the dismissal for just cause announced by the former Minister of Finance, Fernando Medina and João Galamba, former Minister of Infrastructure, on March 6, 2023. The basis of the decision, as the government officials explained at the time, was the opinion of the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) on the controversial compensation of 500 thousand euros to Alexandra Reis.
The report considered the payment to Alexandra Reis “illegal” and pointed out Christine Ourmières-Widener and Manuel Beja, former president of the TAP Board of Directors, also dismissed for just cause, as those responsible for having signed the agreement for the departure of Alexandra Reis in February 2022, which violated the Public Manager status.
A conclusion refuted several times by the manager, including when it was heard at the TAP Management Inquiry Committee, defending that it was a “political decision”.
With regard to the value of the 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 amounts that she considers to be entitled to until the end of the contract (in 2025), and performance bonuses after having led TAP to achieve profits in 2022, which had not happened for five years and brought forward the targets established in the restructuring plan agreed with Brussels by almost three years.
Furthermore, includes a portion for being dismissed without giving notice 180 days and for reputational damage.
TAP’s accounts, known in the defense’s arguments in January 2024, point to a total sum of 432 thousand euros.
In contradiction, the defense of the airline led by Luís Rodrigues argues that the former executive president , which would violate Public Manager rules.
E accuses the manager of allowing a situation of conflict of interest with the company that hired her husbandand attempted to provide services to the airline, causing “serious reputational risks” to the carrier.
“They set fire to my vehicle”
Ourmières-Widener was hired to preside over TAP, where he entered in June 2021in a process led by the then Minister of Infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos.
He replaced Antonoaldo Neves, chosen by the private shareholder, David Neeleman, who was removed following the pandemic and State control of the carrier.
In the article in Expresso, the manager claims to have been “publicly accused of baseless criminal intentions” e “publicly removed, live on television, by two ministers”Fernando Medina and João Galamba, in addition to being persecuted: “They set fire to my vehicle.”
Maintaining that no illegalities or mismanagement were alleged, and that under his leadership TAP presented positive operational and financial results despite the difficulties, argues that his removal was politically motivated, at the height of the crisis triggered by the disclosure of the compensation paid to former administrator Alexandra Reis, which he claims was evidenced in wiretaps on António Costa.
“Years later, wiretaps came to light that crystallized 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”, he states.
“I do not cite the then Prime Minister as a personal reckoning, but as the exact milestone in which the decision stopped being guided by the company’s management and began to respond to a logic of political convenience and survival, culminating in a dismissal without any just cause”, he emphasizes.
