(Portugal) TAP Portugal @·AIRCRAFTUBE

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TAP Portugal

TAP Air Portugal is the flag carrier airline of Portugal, headquartered at Lisbon Airport which also serves as its hub. TAP (Transportes Aéreos Portugueses) is a member of the Star Alliance since 2005 and operates on average 2,500 flights a week to 87 destinations in 34 countries worldwide. The company has a fleet of 86 airplanes, 66 of which manufactured by Airbus and the remaining 20 by Embraer and ATR, operating on behalf of the regional airine TAP Express.

In June 2015 the company was semi-privatised and became majority-owned by the Atlantic Gateway Consortium, led by David Neeleman, who founded JetBlue, Azul and co-founded WestJet Airlines, together with Portuguese entrepreneur Humberto Pedrosa. The Atlantic Gateway Consortium purchased 61% of the carrier from the government of Portugal on 24 June 2015, with an option to buy the Portuguese government's remaining 34 percent stake in 2018. This deal has been surrounded in controversy because it was completed at the end of the center-right government's mandate with wide opposition from TAP employees. On October 2015, a new left-wing government has sought to return majority control of the airline to the state, having signed in February 2016 a deal with the private consortium, which indicates that the company is 50% owned by the Portuguese state, 45% by the Atlantic Gateway Consortium and 5% available shareholder to collaborators and employees of TAP.

TAP Portugal is rated as three-star by Skytrax.

Early postwar operations

The airline, founded on 14 March 1945 as Transportes Aéreos Portugueses, SGPS, S.A. (Portuguese Air Transportations), began commercial services on 19 September 1946, with a flight from Lisbon to Madrid using a Douglas DC-3. On 31 December, TAP Portugal began its Linha Aérea Imperial, a twelve-stop colonial service including Luanda, Angola and Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), Mozambique. It covered 24.450 km with in 15 days (both ways), making it was the longest air service operated with twin-engine airliners.

In 1947 domestic services commenced from Lisbon to Porto as well as from São Tomé to London. Four Douglas DC-4 Skymasters were purchased in this year, remaining in service until 1960. These were used on the routes to Africa and to major European destinations including London.

The airline was privatised for the first time in 1953, changing from a public service to a public limited company (plc) and began in the same year services to Tangier and Casablanca.

Lockheed Super Constellation four-engined pressurised airliners, acquired in late 1955, were immediately introduced on the TAP African scheduled services to Luanda and Lourenço Marques. That same year Admiral Gago Coutinho made a test flight to Rio de Janeiro.

The jet era - the mid 1960s onwards

Beginning in 1960, TAP Portugal launched Rio de Janeiro as its first destination in Brazil, in a jointly-operated air service named "Voo da Amizade" ("Friendship Flight") with Panair do Brasil (1960-1965) and Varig (1965-1967). A route from Lisbon to Goa, a 19-hour flight with five stopovers, was added to the network in the beginning of the 1960s. TAP entered the jet era in July 1962, when three Sud Aviation Caravelle twin-jet airliners were acquired and operated on the airline's most competitive European routes.

The one-millionth passenger flew on TAP on 19 June 1964, 18 years after the airline began operations. In 1966 TAP operated its first sole flight to Brazil, when a company Boeing 707 landed at Galeão Airport in Rio de Janeiro, on 17 June at 17.32 GMT. Precisely at the same time and on the same day as the hydroplane Santa Cruz moored in Guanabara Bay in 1922, when Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho made their historic South Atlantic crossing. The route to Brazil was inaugurated.

In 1967, the airline achieved a milestone: it became the first European airline to fly exclusively with jets.

In 1969, service to New York City via Santa Maria Island began. Boston was added to the New York service in 1970.

The first of four Boeing 747-200s was received in 1972.

TAP began 1974 with 32 state-of-the-art aircraft operating to more than 40 destinations on four continents, it began offering computerised reservations, load control and check-in (known as Tapmatic), and became the first European airline to carry out major comprehensive overhauls of the Boeing 747 engines. By the end of 1974, TAP had carried more than 1.5 million passengers, flown 68,210 hours over a network of almost 103,000 kilometres and had a staff of over 9,000. Following the 25 April 1974 revolution, Portugal was caught up in the wave of nationalisations during the following year and TAP was no exception, thus becoming a state-owned corporation in 1975.

After the independence of Angola and Mozambique, the important African market decreased tremendously and two Boeing 747s were sold in 1976.

In 1979, the company implemented a modernisation programme that also resulted with it being renamed TAP Air Portugal.

Fleet modernisation and expansion

During the 1980s, the fleet of Boeing 707s and 747s were replaced with Lockheed L-1011 TriStars and Airbus A310s on long-haul routes. In 1985 TAP established its charter subsidiary Air Atlantis, providing leisure flights to most European cities, which operated Boeing 707, Boeing 727 and Boeing 737 jets. By the late 1990s, TAP had expanded its fleet by selling its older Boeing 727s and Boeing 737s, and had replaced them with Airbus A319, A320 and A321 aircraft. The TriStars were sold to Air Luxor and were replaced by Airbus A340s, giving TAP an Airbus-only fleet.

In 1989, TAP became a publicly traded company (Sociedade Anónima) and their New York service moved to Newark Liberty International Airport from JFK and in 1991 introduce the service to Berlin. In 1993, TAP began flying to Tel Aviv. In 1994, TAP signed for a code sharing arrangement with Delta Air Lines for North Atlantic service. This agreement ended in 2005.

1996 saw the introduction of service to Boston via Terceira Island, the inauguration of service to Macau and the launch of TAP's website. In 1997, service began to Punta Cana and Bangkok. Flights to Bangkok and Macau were discontinued in 1998.

A strategic alliance was formed with Swissair in 1997. Within the scope of this agreement, a team of professional managers arrive at TAP, led by the Brazilian Fernando Pinto. Part of the agreement would led to Swissair buying a 34% stake of TAP. Also, TAP became a member of Qualiflyer, the frequent-flyer program led by the Swiss flag carrier. Due to financial difficulties, the Swiss company ends up not buying the agreed shares of TAP Portugal, unilaterally revoking the partnership agreement which leads to unexpected costs for the Portuguese airline in 2000, with the culmination of a legal action taken against Swissair.

A new TAP Portugal

TAP became a member of Star Alliance on 14 March 2005, the same day on which the company celebrated its 60th anniversary. TAP Air Portugal was re-branded as TAP Portugal in February 2005. TAP also ended its code-sharing agreement with Delta Air Lines and began a new agreement with United, as part of its membership in the Star Alliance. Under this agreement United's code (UA) is placed on TAP Portugal's transatlantic flights and some African flights, and TAP Portugal's code (TP) is placed on United flights.

In 2006, TAP Portugal signed a deal with Espírito Santo International for the acquisition of 99.81% of the Portuguese regional airline Portugalia. Furthermore, it started a code-sharing agreement with US Airways on all routes between Portugal and the United States with connecting services out of Newark and Philadelphia.

In 2007 TAP Portugal was awarded by NATO as the Best Engine/Aircraft Source of Repair for the NATO AWACS Maintenance Program. TAP Portugal has complete maintenance and overhaul bases in Portugal (Lisbon) and Brazil (Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre), and has specialised line maintenance stations in three continents: 4 in Portugal, 8 in Brazil, and 1 in Angola. It started scheduled flights to Moscow, Warsaw and Helsinki, in June 2009.

After taking a decision to outsource its Passenger Service System in 2008, TAP migrated its reservation and inventory systems to the Altéa system managed by Amadeus. Prior to the migration to Altéa TAP was using a system derived from Delta Air Lines called Tapmatic, in use since 1972.

Development since 2010

As of 2010 TAP has introduced two new routes to Africa: Marrakesh and Algiers. The launch of these new routes highlights the carrier airline reinforcement of its growth strategy for Africa, which is an important segment in the network where the airline has continually expanded since 2001, going from 236,000 to 541,000 passengers, an increase of more than 129%.

Miami and Porto Alegre were the latest long range routes introduced in 2011.

Privatisation

In order to obtain its three-year national bailout, Portugal was forced to sell its interests in several companies, including the state-run airline. Several international operators were drawn by the airline's strategic position, but on 18 October 2012, the Portuguese government announced a sole potential bidder for the privatized national carrier: the South American consortium Synergy Aerospace, owner of Colombian airline Avianca. Portuguese financial daily Dinheiro Vivo indicated that the government would suspend privatization negotiations, if German Efromovich's Synergy Aerospace bid was not approved.

On 21 March 2014 the airline announced that it would buy two ATR 42-600 for its subsidiary company, Portugália, replacing the smaller Beechcraft 1900D previously operated by PGA Express.

The Portuguese Government planned to sell its controlling stake in the flag carrier to one or more large investors in a relaunch of the privatisation in 2014. It intended to sell a 66% stake in the airline, with 5% of that set aside for its 7,500 staff. Among known bidders were South American businessman German Efromovich, whose 2012 bid for TAP failed to meet the initial conditions; a consortium formed by American businessman Frank Lorenzo and Portuguese entrepreneur Miguel Pais do Amaral; the American Brazilian businessman David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue in the United States and Azul in Brazil and finally Globalia, the parent company of Air Europa.

In May 2015, an over week-long pilot strike led to the cancellation of around 3,000 TAP Portugal flights.

In June 2015, the Portuguese Government decided to sell the TAP Portugal Group, owner of the national air carrier, TAP Portugal, to the Atlantic Gateway consortium formed by the partnership between David Neeleman and Humberto Pedrosa, who took control of 61% of the capital of the Portuguese flag carrier. On the memorandum signed by the new owner, TAP Portugal has to maintain the country as the airline's main hub for a minimum of 30 years. The consortium that won the company's privatization in June 2015 has promised to buy 53 new Airbus aircraft for TAP. It was announced new orders would include 14 wide-body A330s and 39 narrow-body A320 Family aircraft.

On October 2015, a new left-wing government has sought to return majority control of the airline to the state, having signed in February 2016 a deal with the private consortium, which indicates that the company is 50% owned by the Portuguese state, 45% by the Atlantic Gateway Consortium and 5% available shareholder to collaborators and employees of TAP.

Post-privatisation

On 14 January 2016, TAP Portugal announced that the subsidiary Portugália Airlines would be rebranded TAP Express by 27 March 2016, as part of further restructuring measures within the group. On the same day, Portuguese carrier also announced that the entire Portugália fleet would be replaced with new aircraft by July 2016, which would receive a livery similar to that of TAP Portugal. A downsize in the carrier network also took place in January, with TAP announcing the ceasing all long-haul flights to Panama City, Manaus and Bogota as well as the European connections to Hanover and Zagreb.

TAP Portugal plans to promote Portugal, in the United States, as a vibrant and exciting tourism destination, and Lisbon as a prime gateway into Europe for North American travellers, and thus, on February 2016, the airline announced the return of New York's John F. Kennedy International and Boston's Logan International as daily non-stop services from Lisbon. The Boston service started on June 11 and the new JFK daily flights commenced on July 1, both being operated with new Airbus A330-200 delivered in June of the same year from Azul Brazilian Airlines. These two new routes reinforce the presence in the American market, with TAP also serving Miami from Lisbon and Newark from Lisbon and Porto. Altogether, TAP Portugal service grew to 30 flights per week to the US.

TAP is expanding its network in 2017, adding 10 routes, some which were previously operated by the airline: Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Alicante and Las Palmas (Spain), Bucharest (Romania), Budapest (Hungary), Cologne and Stuttgart (Germany), Lomé (Togo), London City Airport (England), Toronto (Canada).

In March 2017, Miguel Antunes Frasquilho, President & CEO of AICEP Portugal Global, was selected to be TAP Portugal's new Chairman of the Board.

Corporate affairs and identity

TAP has its head office in Building 25 on the grounds of Humberto Delgado Airport in Santa Maria dos Olivais, Lisbon.

Subsidiaries

TAP Portugal's subsidiaries are:

  • Portugal TAP Express (100%).
  • Portugal Groundforce Portugal (49.9%).
  • Portugal TAP Maintenance and Engineering (100%).
  • Brazil TAP Maintenance and Engineering Brasil (90%).
  • Portugal TAP Tours (100%).
  • Portugal TAP Serviços (100%).
  • Portugal CateringPOR (51%).
  • Portugal Megasis (100%).
  • Portugal UCS (100%).
  • Up until the end of 2016, TAP Portugal had a 51% stake in Lojas Francas de Portugal (LFP), a retail joint-venture created in 1995 between the flag carrier and Dufry. LFP is present in Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Madeira and Azores, with over 30 stores, and is also present on board of TAP Portugal with its "On Air" shopping magazine. Its stake in the company was sold to Vinci, the owner of ANA Aeroportos de Portugal.

TAP Cargo

TAP Cargo is the freight branch of TAP Portugal. It does not operate own cargo aircraft but sells freight capacity aboard TAP's passenger flights and also maintains five scheduled all-cargo routes utilising other airlines:

London Heathrow Airport operated by European Air Transport with a Boeing 757. Frankfurt Airport operated by MNG Airlines with an Airbus A300. Cologne Bonn Airport operated by MNG Airlines with an Airbus A300. Brussels Airport operated by Royal Jordanian with an Airbus A310. Dakar Airport. TAP Cargo also operates Lisbon-Luanda all-cargo non-regular flights, in an Avient Aviation DC-10F, a Girjet 747-200F, and other leased aircraft.

Awards

In 2007 TAP Portugal was awarded by NATO as the Best Engine/Aircraft Source of Repair for the NATO AWACS Maintenance Program and has been distinguished with the highest maintenance and overhaul practice awards from Airbus Industries in 1996, 2000, 2003, and 2005, being certified for full aircraft, engine and component maintenance and overhaul by the FAA, EASA, and several other important certification entities and aircraft manufacturers (Airbus, Boeing and Embraer).

In 2010 TAP Portugal was awarded the "World's Best Airline Award" by British Condé Nast Traveler magazine, after being rated for its excellence in previous years, and was rated as the "Best Airline to South America" by the World Travel Awards in 2009 and 2010, with nominations for "Europe's Leading Airline" and "Europe's Leading Business Class" in 2007, 2009 and 2010. TAP Portugal has also consistently achieved high ranks and various awards from specialized air travel publications such as Skytrax and Publituris due to the company's excellence in service and performance. In recent years, TAP Portugal has been consecutively elected World's Leading Airline to Africa and to South America by the World Travel Awards (WTA), considered the "Oscars" of the world travel industry.

Destinations

As of June 2017, TAP Portugal serves 87 destinations in 34 countries across Europe, Africa, North America and South America, with some domestic, European and African destinations being operated by TAP Express.

TAP Portugal is the leading European airline flying to Brazil, offering more destinations from its hub in Lisbon than any other European airline. Many Europeans transit through Portugal to fly to Brazil due to the large amount of slots TAP holds on the South American country. The airline is currently looking to expand its service to Brazil even further, as well as adding new destinations in the United States, in which it currently serves four airports: Boston, Miami, Newark and New-York JFK.

On March 2016, TAP Portugal began an air shuttle service, designated "Ponte Aérea", to connect Lisbon and Porto's airports with flights every hour adding up to 18 round-trip flights. It is operated by White Airways on behalf of the regional brand TAP Express.

As of March 2017, TAP increased the number of weekly flights to destinations already served in Europe, Brazil, the United States and Africa.

Codeshare agreements

TAP has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

Fleet

As of August 2017, the fleet of TAP Air Portugal consists of the following aircraft:

Aircraft In Service Orders Passengers Notes
C Y Total
Airbus A319-100 21 — 30 114 144 One aircraft painted in TAP Portugal 70 Years livery.
Airbus A320-200 20 — 18 156 174 One aircraft painted in Star Alliance livery.
Airbus A320neo — 16 TBA To be delivered from 2020
Airbus A321-200 4 — 20 196 216
Airbus A321neo — 24 TBA 4 aircraft to be delivered in 2018
Airbus A330-200 15 — 25 244 269 One aircraft painted in Star Alliance livery.. Another aircraft painted in TAP Portugal 70 Years livery.. 7 older aircraft will be replaced by Airbus A330-900neo.
Airbus A330-300 4 — 30 255 285 One aircraft painted in TAP's Portugal Retrojet livery.. One aircraft painted in Portugal Stopover.
Airbus A330-900neo — 20 TBA Launch Customer.. Deliveries begin in 2018.. Replacing A340-300 and 7 older A330-200.
Airbus A340-300 4 — 36 232 268 To be replaced by Airbus A330-900neo.
Total 68 60

TAP Portugal has announced in January 2016 the order of new 8 ATR 72-600 and 9 Embraer 190 and the creation of the new brand TAP Express that will replace Portugália Airlines. In January 2016, TAP Portugal also announced the order of more two Airbus A330-200 to add for his wide-body family. TAP Portugal will be the first airline to fly the Airbus A330neo, the latest version of the plane maker's current generation of wide-body jets. The aircraft, a revamped and more fuel-efficient version of the A330 with new Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines, was due to enter service in late 2017. Delays in the development of the aircraft's engine will push the entry in service to the 3Q 2018. TAP ordered 14 of the jets as part of a wider fleet reorganisation last year.

Accidents and incidents

According to the JACDEC Airliner Safety Report released in January 2011, TAP Portugal was rated Western Europe's safest airline and tied for fourth worldwide with three other airlines (Qantas, Air New Zealand, and Finnair). The JADEC report rates TAP Portugal well above any of its competitors in its prime geographic operating areas: Europe, Atlantic Islands, Africa, North America and South America.

TAP Portugal Flight 425: the crash of Flight 425 at Madeira Airport on 19 November 1977 remains TAP Portugal's only fatal accident. Flight 425 was flying to Madeira Airport from Brussels via Lisbon. The Boeing 727 crashed while landing on runway 24 in heavy rain. Before the crash, the pilot had made two unsuccessful attempts to land, and had decided to make one more attempt. The plane touched down too late and overran the runway which was, at the time, only 1600 metres long. The plane crashed onto a beach at the end of the runway, splitting into two pieces and bursting into flames. Of the 164 people aboard, 131 were killed and 33 survived. It is the second deadliest aeroplane accident in Portugal (after Independent Air Flight 1851). The crash prompted officials to explore ways of extending the short runway on Madeira. Because of the height of the runway relative to the beach below, an extension was very difficult and too expensive to perform. A 200 m (656 ft) extension was built between 1983 and 1986. In 2000 the runway was extended to 2,781 m (9,124 ft) long and was capable of handling wide body commercial jets such as the Boeing 747 or Airbus A340.

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    On a smartphone, the lack of space is growing and this menu is moved to the bottom of the page to give priority to videos and pictures.

    The top right icons are links to videos posted by third parties (on their own responsabilities) or by ourselves. The link below these icons will take you to the channel of the one who posted the video. Feel free to suggest other videos if you think they are of some interest (Use the BLOG button or the "Contact" link).