TAP Portugal

Lisbon, Madeira, Porto

TAP Portugal ( Transportes Aéreos Portugueses founded in 1945 as a short form TAP ) is the largest Portuguese airline based in Lisbon and hub on the local Aeroporto da Portela and a member of the airline alliance Star Alliance.

  • 2.1 Flight Destinations in German-speaking
  • 2.2 codeshare agreement

History

The TAP was founded on March 14, 1945 as " Transportes Aéreos Portugueses " (Portuguese air transport) in Lisbon. In the same year, the Company acquired two Douglas DC-3 Dakota. The first commercial flight it carried out between Lisbon and Madrid on 19 September 1946. Luanda ( Angola) - - Lourenço Marques opened (Mozambique ) On 31 December 1946, the connection between Lisbon. The journey there and back took 15 days took 12 stopovers, taking over 24,540 kilometers of the longest scheduled flight, the DC -3 performed.

Within a few years, the airline grew rapidly, so that it was in 1948 a member of IATA. Also, the route network continued to grow, so important European destinations such as Paris (1948) and London were added (1949 ), which were served with a Douglas C -54 and Sevilla (1948 ), which was operated with a DC-3.

In order to serve more, mainly long distances without stopping, the first Lockheed Super Constellation in 1955 put into operation. In 1960, the TAP flew one of the few airlines in Europe to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, to strengthen the Portuguese -Brazilian relationship, so that the air fares cost half as much as in other European competitors. In July 1962, TAP was the first Caravelle VI -R, with whom she got into the jet age. However, it also opened up further distances, such as Las Palmas and Santa Maria ( 1962), Munich and Frankfurt ( 1963), Geneva and Faro (1965 ) and other European routes. Back in 1967, flew TAP as the first European airline with only jet-powered airplanes type Caravelle, Boeing 727-200 and Boeing 707 To further destinations to operate and can carry more passengers, modernized and extended to the fleet by the models of the Airbus A300, the McDonnell Douglas DC -10 and Boeing 747-200.

In 1985, the subsidiary Air Atlantis was founded, which took over the charter flights of TAP. The continuing progress in the 80s and 90s, the airline has continued to rise, so we ordered models of the Airbus A310 -300, Airbus A320, Airbus A340, Boeing 737-300 and Boeing 767 that arrived in the course of time and aging aircraft replaced, as well as the Boeing 707, 727 and 747, which were already retired at the beginning of the 80s.

21st Century

At the beginning of the 21st century, not only is the existing name " TAP Air Portugal " has been changed to " TAP Portugal ", it met a modern aircraft of the type Airbus A330 and the TAP is 2005 a member of the Star Alliance since March 14.

In December 2006, TAP announced the acquisition of a share of 99.8 % of the Portuguese regional airline PGA Portugalia Airlines. Since PGA flies exclusively for TAP.

During the year 2011 the Portuguese Government announced the privatization of the company. This is considered part of the 87 billion euros of EU rescue package. After several failed attempts, in December 2012, the last attempt of privatization, so this has been postponed until further notice.

In 2012, TAP Portugal transported first time, more than 10.2 million passengers and was also able to the average load factor increased further.

Destinations

  • Portugal
  • TAP Destinations

Currently, the TAP flies to 77 destinations with its own aircraft, a further 119 are available through the TAP in codeshare, so that a total of 196 destinations can be offered (as of 2012). Especially in the European, African and South American region TAP controls by hand these targets, among which is next to Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Paris, London, Dublin, Moscow, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Athens and Rome in Europe, Dakar ( Senegal), Sal (Cape Verde), Accra (Ghana), Bissau, Sao Tome, Luanda (Angola), Johannesburg (South Africa), Maputo (Mozambique ) in Africa, and Caracas ( Venezuela), Fortaleza, Natal, Recife, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Campinas, São Paulo and Porto Alegre in South America are many more destinations. The focus is partly due to the former Portuguese colonies, as well as to locations with large Portuguese communities, such as New York in the United States. On the occasion of the Football World Championship for Men in Brazil, the TAP flies from June 2014 Belém and Manaus directly to Lisbon.

Overall, therefore, be 108 destinations in Europe, 10 of them in Portugal itself, 62 in North and South America, 19 in Africa and offered 7 in the Middle East and Asia.

Destinations in German-speaking

In German-speaking countries the TAP Frankfurt, Hanover (from the summer schedule 2014), Hamburg, Munich, Dusseldorf, Geneva, Zurich and Vienna flies to. Since March 17, 2013, the airport Berlin- Schönefeld is served after a 14 year break from Lisbon, the last flight to Berlin took place in 1999. With the resumption of this compound Berlin will be the fifth and the sixth destination in the TAP Hannover in Germany.

Codeshare agreement

Next TAP maintains code-share agreements with many airlines, including those from the Star Alliance network ( here marked with *):

  • Aegean Airlines *
  • Air Baltic
  • Air Canada *
  • Air China *
  • Alitalia
  • ANA *
  • Austrian Airlines *
  • Swiss International Airlines *
  • TACV
  • TAM Linhas Aéreas *
  • Thai Airways International *
  • Turkish Airlines *
  • Ukraine International Airlines
  • United Airlines *
  • U.S. Airways *

Fleet

As of March 2014, the fleet of TAP Portugal consists of 69 aircraft with an average age of 12.6 years

Incidents

TAP Portugal recorded in its history since 1945, a total of seven incidents, one of which had two fatalities result:

  • On January 27, 1948 Douglas C -47 crashed on a training flight during bad weather south of Lisbon. All three people on board were killed.
  • On November 19, 1977, the Boeing 727-200 crashed with the aircraft registration mark CS- TBR when approaching the classified difficult Madeira Airport. In heavy rain and poor visibility, the machine had to abort two landing attempts on the then relatively short path. In the third approach, they sat about 600 meters on behind the optimum touchdown and came because of aquaplaning on the remaining available 900 meters no longer to stand. The aircraft crashed on the end of the runway on the island's cliffs. Of the 164 people on board survived 33 As a result of this accident, among other things, the runway has since been considerably extended by a complex construction stilts.

Awards

TAP Portugal has been awarded or nominated by several magazines and agencies in numerous categories. She also received, inter alia, a high placement in your categories The Best European Business Class and Europe's best airline. Other awards are:

  • 2009 - Planet Earth by UNESCO
  • 2010 - World 's Best Airline Award
  • 2011/2012/2013 - Best Airline in Europe
  • 2012 - Best deals on flights to Africa
  • 2007/2009/2010/2012 - Best deals on flights to South America
  • 2013 - 2nd Place: Best airline on the transatlantic routes
IATA-Code International Civil Aviation Organization airport code Lisbon Portela Airport Chief Executive Officer Douglas C-54 Skymaster Las Palmas (disambiguation) Natal, Rio Grande do Norte Salvador (Bahia) All Nippon Airways Brussels Airlines Fokker 100 Aviation Safety Network Adria Airways Air New Zealand Avianca Copa Airlines EVA Air Shenzhen Airlines Ansett Australia Continental Airlines Shanghai Airlines VARIG Association of European Airlines Air Malta Air Serbia British Airways Cargolux Cyprus Airways Czech Airlines Icelandair Luxair TAROM
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