TAP Airlines is modernized

[Roy Hersh]

Announced yesterday by the airlines:

The new TAP is now a reality.

Today, we are announcing some very important news to the company and to all our Customers as well, among which I hereby emphasise the renewal of PGA’s fleet, an objective that had been delayed for a number of years due to investment limitations.

Up to next July, we will take delivery of new aircraft - eight ATR72 and nine Embraer 190 - which will allow us to improve the comfort and efficiency of our fleet. With such a new fleet, we will also be able to increase seat capacity available by 47% as well as to achieve significant savings in fuel consumption, with the resulting benefits to environment.
But this heavy investment is not enough on its own.

We are not only renewing our regional fleet, but also adding consistency to TAP brand and product by reinforcing its commercial identity and redesigning our product and services as well.

“TAP Express”is the newly branded product launched by TAP to replace Portugália, PGA airlines, from now on operating with a new fleet, as hereby announced.

We are also announcing the creation of the Porto-Lisbon shuttle, designated as “Ponte Aérea”, to connect both destinations with flights every hour, adding to 16 roundtrip dailies in the whole. The launch of the Porto – Lisbon shuttle will enable better service on the point-to-point connections and much better conditions for an optimised connectivity to the Lisbon hub operations, providing Customers with easy access to the whole TAP network.
Check our youtube video here
The “Ponte Aérea” will offer very competitive prices to travel between Porto and Lisbon and an innovative product, with dedicated check-in counters and boarding gates along with fast and easy passenger boarding.

As of next March 27, TAP will increase the number of weekly flights to destinations already served in Europe, Brazil, the United States and Africa, reinforcing our product consistency.

I am sure these are historic days for TAP, now that the airline has the investment capacity to expand and turn into a more modern and competitive airline, one that is responsive to the needs of Customers and strongly committed to serve the markets where it operates.

The investments already underway, which include orders for 53 new aircraft, €60 million to retrofit the cabin interiors of the current fleet, €11 million to retrofit twelve A320-family aircraft with the sharklet technology, €2 million for a new digital reservations platform and the increase and renovation of PGA fleet, will allow us to embrace the future completely confident that TAP Portugal will become stronger and better able to provide improved services, with the same values as always.

Thank you for choosing TAP. We are confident we will be able to surprise you positively as we become increasingly better equipped to respond to your needs and meet your expectations.

Welcome aboard the new TAP.

Fernando Pinto
CEO
- See more at: http://www.tapportugal.com/Info/en/abou ... SsQQd.dpuf

[Moses Botbol]

That is good to read. Seems like SATA beats them on airfare prices routinely.

[Andy Velebil]

And they will still be late for every flight.

The only airline I've ever flown where every single flight didn't start boarding until right about listed take-off time

[Eric Menchen]

And they might still lose my luggage. But I'll be less confused checking-in compared to last year when I took one of those PGA puddle jumpers from Porto to Madrid.

[Christian Gollnick]

I fly two, three times a year from Miami to Lisbon and then on to Porto. Normally I fly TAP - and I'm as happy as I can be! Only once in maybe 15-20 trips came my suitcase a day later than me to Porto... On some occasions I flew on American Airlines... what a difference... day and night... The AA airplanes are old, ugly, not enough overhead-compartment-storage... the flight-crew was already working when Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic the first time... and the mood in TAP flights is just better... and the food.... and the movies... I'm glad to see that they now beef up their offering and hope it will even get better (even if I must confess that I have never heard about the ATR 72 and had to google it to see what that is) ... It's a friendly airline... of course I'm biased because I love everything Portuguese...

[Andy Velebil]

AA is horrible.


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[Bradley Bogdan]

AA is horrible.


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Apparently that's a world wide consistency, haha.


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[A dschus]

I'm noticing one fairly close non-stop flight from North America to Porto and that's from Toronto. Are there any non-stop flights to Porto that originate in USA?

[Glenn E.]

Newark did in 2008 on TAP, but I don't know if they still do.

[Roy Hersh]

I have not taken it since 2013, but for years it used to be that there was a Thursday night direct flight on TAP out of Newark to Porto. For a couple of years there was also a Friday night (9:00 p.m. flight from Newark too) but that was canceled earlier this decade.

[Ronald Wortel]

And they will still be late for every flight.

The only airline I've ever flown where every single flight didn't start boarding until right about listed take-off time

obviously you've never flown with Etihad, Gulf Air or Oman Air!

[Andy Velebil]

And they will still be late for every flight.

The only airline I've ever flown where every single flight didn't start boarding until right about listed take-off time

obviously you've never flown with Etihad, Gulf Air or Oman Air!

No and I will try to avoid them if I do.

[Ronald Wortel]

And they will still be late for every flight.

The only airline I've ever flown where every single flight didn't start boarding until right about listed take-off time

obviously you've never flown with Etihad, Gulf Air or Oman Air!

No and I will try to avoid them if I do.

Smart man!

[Roy Hersh]

In this modern day, it is nice to see an airlines where the female flight attendants still wear gloves.

I realize this happens in other parts of the world, but we Americans, just about never see this anymore. When I was a young boy, it was commonplace even on our commercial airlines. When that ended in "steerage class, for several more years it continued in First Class.

[Bryan H.]

Now if only they (or someone) would add ORD-LIS direct...

[Christian Gollnick]

Well... The latest developments are not as nice as I hoped for with the "new" TAP. Tap announced to cancel several routes from Porto: Brussels, Rome, Barcelona and Milan. As these flights have an average occupancy rate of 90%, it seems like this is a move by the airline not to get rid of inefficient routes, but rather to increase the significance of their Lisbon-hub. That is not good news for travelers that want to fly directly to Porto. Porto's airport is so much nicer than Lisbon's (with the exception of Lisbon's Duty Free Wine Store, which I love!). This will have a sizable impact on the tourism to Porto - in 2015 there were 1,867 flights between Porto and these four cities, with approx. 190,000 passengers.

https://www.publico.pt/local/noticia/ca ... as-1722236