LISBON, July 10 Reuters Portugal39;s stateowned airline TAP carried 7.58 million passengers in the first half of this year, a 30 increase from a year ago but still slightly below prepandemic levels even as tourist numbers have already exceeded those seen in 2019.

Still, the stateowned carrier, which the government plans to partially privatise, said on Monday that intercontinental routes to Brazil, North America and Africa carried 2.17 million passengers in the period, 14.7 more than in the first half of 2019.

That, it said in a statement, demonstrated the solid recovery of the company, although the total passenger traffic fell 4 shy of the same period in 2019 as the airline39;s flights within Europe, including mainland Portugal and islands carried fewer passengers.

TAP is undergoing a restructuring under a Brusselsapproved 3.2 billion euro 3.51 billion rescue plan, but the government wants to launch its privatisation as early as this month while intending to keep a strategic stake.

At least three major global carriers IAG, Lufthansa, and Air FranceKLM  have so far shown interest in TAP. The Portuguese airline reported a net loss of 57.4 million euros in the first quarter of this year, which represented more than a 50 percent drop from the loss in the previous year39;s period, due to increasing passenger numbers.

1 0.9122 euros

Reporting by Patrícia Vicente Rua; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Paul Simao

Source Reuters