TAP Portugal

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TAP Portugal

IATA TP	ICAO TAP	Callsign AIR PORTUGAL
Founded		1945
Hubs		Portela Airport
Focus cities		Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport Madeira Airport
Frequent flyer program		Victoria
Member lounge		Top Executive Lounge (no member lounge)
Alliance		Star Alliance
Fleet size		48
Destinations		58
Parent company		TAP Portugal
Headquarters		Lisbon, Portugal
Key people		Fernando Pinto (CEO)
Website: http://www.flytap.com

TAP Portugal (Transportes Aéreos Portugueses) is the national airline of Portugal, based in Lisbon and a member of the Star Alliance. It operates to destinations in Europe, Africa and North, Central and South America.

1 History
2 Destinations
3 Fleet
- 3.1 Retired Fleet
4 References
5 External Links

[edit] History

The airline was founded on 14 March 1945, beginning commercial service on 19 September 1946 from Lisbon to Madrid under the name Transportes Aereos Portugueses (TAP). On 31 December 31 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 1949.

In 1953, the airline became a private company and began service to Tangier and Casablanca.

TAP Boeing 727 with classic livery 1950s-1980

TAP Airbus A321-200 with former livery 1980-2005

TAP Airbus A330-200 in the current livery

TAP Airbus A320-200 taking off

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 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 Macau and Bangkok have since been discontinued.

In 2005 TAP 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's trans-atlantic flights and some African flights, and TAP's code (TP) is placed on United flights.

In 2006, it is planning to start codesharing with US Airways on all routes between Portugal and the USA and connection services out of New York City-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 Portugal has shareholdings in Air Macau (15%). TAP had in a airline from Sao Tome and Principe, but the airline was dismantled.

[edit] Destinations

Further information: TAP Portugal destinations

[edit] Fleet

The TAP Portugal fleet consists of the following aircraft (October 2006):^[1]

**TAP Portugal Fleet**
Type	Total	Passengers (Executive/Economy)	Routes	Notes
Airbus A310-300	6	200 (30/168)	to New York, Caracas, London
Airbus A319-100	17	132 (50/71)	domestic and European destinations
Airbus A320-200	15	156 (42/114)	domestic and European destinations
Airbus A321-200	3	194 (35/152)	domestic and European destinations
Airbus A330-200	3 (5 orders)	224 (42/182)	South American destinations	3 coming from Austrian Airlines in a month
Airbus A340-300	4	274 (42/238)	African, South and North American destinations
Airbus A350-800	(8 orders)			Entry Into Service: 2013
Airbus A350-900	(4 orders)			Entry Into Service: 2013