TAP Air Portugal

TAP Portugal
Founded	1945
Hubs	Portela Airport
Focus cities	Faro Airport ; Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport ; Madeira Airport
Frequent-flyer program	Victoria
Alliance	Star Alliance
Fleet size	53 (69 with Portugalia)
Destinations	61
Parent company	TAP Portugal
Headquarters	Lisbon, Portugal
Key people	Fernando Pinto (CEO)
Website	http://www.flytap.com

Airbus A321-200 with former livery 1980-2005

TAP Portugal (former known as Transportes Aéreos Portugueses– Portuguese Air Transportations) is the national airline of Portugal, based in Lisbon (Portela Airport) and is a member of the Star Alliance. It operates to destinations in Europe, Africa and North, Central and South America. Its current Chief Executive Officer is Fernando Pinto.

History

The airline was founded on 14 March 1945, beginning commercial service on 19 September 1946 from Lisbon to Madrid with a Douglas DC-3 under the name Transportes Aéreos Portugueses (TAP). On 31 December of that year, it began its Linha Aérea Imperial, a twelve-stop service including Luanda, Angola and Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), Mozambique.

1947 saw the inauguration of its domestic service from Lisbon to Porto. Service to São Tomé and London began In 1953, the airline became a private company and began service to Tangier and Casablanca.in 1949.

The one millionth passenger flew on TAP on 19 June 1964, 18 years after the airline began operations. In 1969 service to New York via Santa Maria Island in the Azores began. Boston was added to the New York service the following year. In 1975, TAP was nationalized, becoming a public corporation (Empresa Pública).

TAP purchased the Boeing 747 during the 1970s, replacing their Boeing 707s; but the 747s were eventually sold due to lack of demand. They were replaced by Lockheed TriStars and Airbus A310s on long haul routes. 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. The TriStars were sold to Air Luxor and were replaced by more capable Airbus A340s giving TAP a large fleet of Airbus only aircraft.

In 1975, TAP was nationalized and changed its name to TAP Air Portugal in March 1979.

In 1989 service to Newark, New Jersey was introduced and in 1991, service to Berlin. Also in 1989 TAP became a publicly-traded company (Sociedade Anónima). In 1993, TAP began flying to Tel Aviv. In 1994, TAP began a code sharing arrangement with Delta Air Lines for north Atlantic service. This agreement was ended in 2005.

1996 saw the introduction of service to Boston via Terceira Island in the Azores, 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.

In 2005 TAP Portugal became the sixteenth member of the Star Alliance. TAP Air Portugal was rebranded as TAP Portugal in February 2005. It employs 9750 staff. TAP also ended its code sharing agreement with Delta Air Lines and began a new agreement with United Airlines as part of its membership in Star Alliance. Under this agreement United's code (UA) is placed on TAP Portugal's trans-atlantic flights and some African flights, and TAP Portugal's code (TP) is placed on United flights.

In 2006, it started a codesharing agreement with US Airways on all routes between Portugal and the USA and connection services out of Newark and Philadelphia.

On November 6, 2006, TAP Portugal, a member of Star Alliance, signed a contract with Espírito Santo International for the acquisition of 99.81 percent of the regional airline Portugália. Whether Portugália will join Star Alliance as a regional member or merge its operations with TAP is still unclear.

TAP inaugurated five times weekly A330-200 service between Lisbon and Belo Horizonte (Tancredo Neves Intl/SBCF) on 11 February 2008.

2007 Results

Passengers transported: 7,8 million

Financial Results: € 32,8 million

Cargo: (not announced yet)

Subsidiaries

The current subsidiaries of TAP Portugal are:

Air Macau (20%)
- Macau Asia Express (10.2%)
Portugália (100%)
- PGA Express
Groundforce (Handling) (49.9%)
TAP Maintenance & Engineering (100%)
- VEM Maintenance & Engineering (100%)

Former subsidiaries include:

Air São Tomé and Príncipe (40%)

Destinations

TAP Cargo

TAP Cargo has four all-cargo routes. Besides these routes, TAP Cargo uses all TAP Portugal flights. The four all-cargo routes are:

Porto– London, England, operated by a European Air Transport all-cargo Boeing 757
Lisbon– Frankfurt, Germany, operated by a MNG Airlines all-cargo Airbus A300
Lisbon– Cologne, Germany, operated by a MNG Airlines all-cargo Airbus A300
Lisbon– Brussels, Belgium, operated by a Royal Jordanian all-cargo Airbus A310-300

TAP Cargo has Lisbon-Luanda all-cargo non-regular flights, in Avient Aviation DC-10F, Girjet 747-200F, or other leased airplanes.

Fleet

The TAP Portugal fleet consists of the following aircraft as of June 2008 :^[1]

**TAP Portugal Fleet**
Aircraft	Total	Passengers (Executive/Economy)	Routes	Notes
Airbus A310-300	1	194 (18/176)	Natal and Newark	Exit from service: July 2008
Airbus A319-100	19	132	Domestic and European
Airbus A320-200	15 (6 orders leased) (8 options)	156	Domestic and European	Deliveries: 6 in 2009, 6 in 2011, 2 in 2012 One in Star Alliance livery
Airbus A321-200	3	194	Domestic and European
Airbus A330-200	12		North and South American	One in Star Alliance livery
Airbus A340-300	4	274 (36/238)	African, North and South American
Airbus A350-800	(8 orders) (3 options)	287 (estimated)	International	Entry in service: 2014 Deliveries: 2014-2017
Airbus A350-900	(4 orders)	314 (estimated)	International	Entry in service: 2014 Deliveries: 2014-2017
Embraer ERJ 145 EP	8	45	Domestic and European	Portugália
Fokker 100	6	97	Domestic and European	Portugália
Beechcraft 1900	2	19	Spain	PGA Express