TAP Portugal (Lisbon) issued this statement and video:
For its 2015 Christmas video, TAP, the Portuguese leading airline, sought inspiration from its daily sounds to adapt, in an innovative way and for the first time ever, the renowned Christmas melody Jingle Bells, exclusively using aircraft sounds.
The leading actors are TAP employees and the Airbus A330 aircraft, registration CS-TOQ named “Pedro Teixeira”, that embraced the spirit of the season to wish its passengers a Merry Christmas.
Itโs time for the world to see it! Happy holidays!
TAP Portugal has signed a firm order with Airbus for 53 Widebody and single aisle aircraft including 14 A330-900neo, and 39 A320neo Family aircraft (15 A320neos and 24 A321neos). The aircraft will join TAP Portugalโs fleet as part of its fleet renewal announced by the airlineโs new majority owner Atlantic Gateway. As part of the agreement, TAP Portugal is replacing its previous order of 12 A350-900s with the A330-900neo.
TAP Portugal is an all Airbus customer, currently operating 43 A320 Family aircraft and 18 Widebody Family aircraft.
The A330-800neo and the A330-900neo are two new members of the Airbus Widebody Family launched in July 2014 with first deliveries scheduled to start in Q4 2017.
David Neeleman, the airline entrepreneur who was involved with running Morris Air (Salt Lake City) with June Morris before he founded NewAir (later JetBlue Airways) (New York) and later Azul Brazilian Airlines (Sao Paulo), has struck out again with a new airline venture. This time he is not creating something new but buying into something old.
Neeleman lead an investment group which has been selected by the state of Portugal to acquire their controlling share in troubled flag carrier TAP Portugal (Lisbon) for โฌ348 million ($391 million), outbidding investor German Efromovich. Besides running Azul, he will now be running trouble-plagued TAP Portugal. His group will control 61 percent of the stock of TAP Portugal. Neeleman’s group will upgrade the carrier with new aircraft (probably new Embraers for the European routes).
TAP Portugal is also likely to receive a new makeover with the new ownership group, possibly with a new blue theme.
Read the full report from Bloomberg Businessweek: CLICK HERE
Portugal is the mother country of Brazil. The ties are strong. Both countries speak the same language and the traffic patterns are strong between Brazil and Portugal. The Azul-TAP alliance will now compete against TAM and the LATAM Airlines Group which wants to increase the number of flights between Brazil and Europe. The battle lines are being drawn in Brazil.
For Neeleman, his Brazilian roots are deep. According to Wikipedia,ย Neeleman was born in Sรฃo Paulo, Brazil, but raised in Miami. He lived in Brazil until he was five. He later attended Brighton High School in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, and attended the University of Utah for three years before dropping out. He served on a religious mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The Mormons) in the Northeast Region of Brazil.
After starting JetBlue Airways, CEO David Neeleman on May 10, 2007 was forced out and replaced by David Barger.
Neeleman headed south, back to his original roots. On March 27, 2008 Neeleman officially announced plans to launch a new airline, Azul (Portuguese for “blue”). Azul is now Brazil’s third largest airline and it is expanding internationally.
Also according to Wikipedia,ย Neeleman lives with his family in New Canaan, Connecticut, United States. He is the father of nine children. In 2000, he disclosed to CNBC that he has adult attention-deficit disorder (see the video above).
When Azul expanded to the United States it picked two cities that are big on the JetBlue Airways route map – Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood and Orlando, Florida. The ties between Azul and Neeleman’s old JetBlue Airways remain strong.
JetBlue has considered larger aircraft and longer-range routes to Latin America in the past. In essence, Azul is now filling this void (at least to Brazil) with its newly-acquired Airbus A330s.
It is very likely that Neeleman has much bigger plans in mind. The synergy between Brazil (and Latin America), North America and Europe are strong. For Neeleman, he now has the European piece in place once he solves the problems plaguing the flag carrier of Portugal. He also has remaining ties to the North American airline he founded – JetBlue Airways. Are the three the future base of a much larger airline alliance?
For JetBlue, their strategy is to make airline friends with any international carrier that has the potential of code sharing at their point of entry into the United States. They have successfully carved out a niche feeding international airlines especially at New York (JFK), Orlando and Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood. This strategy has recently put them at odds with the “Big Three” (American, Delta and United) over the on-going Open Skies dispute with the “Gulf Big Three” (Emirates, Etihad and Qatar). Due to their stance, their ties with the Gulf Big Three are likely to expand. Will Qatar Airways leave the oneworld alliance for JetBlue?
There is a lot of potential for a future Azul-TAP Portugal-JetBlue alliance although JetBlue is unlikely to do anything that would upset any relationship it has.
For David Neeleman, this is only the beginning.
Video: GE Capital. David Neeleman on Leadership and Innovation.
TAP Portugalโs (Lisbon)ย pilots union, SPAC, has announced a 10-day strike starting on May 1. The pilots, as previously reported, are unhappy with the ongoing privatization process.
TAP Portugal issued this statement:
The Pilots’ Union announced a strike from May 1st to May 10th, which, to be held, will strongly affect TAP operation.
Therefore, TAP will now allow passengers, with confirmed bookings on flights scheduled for the announced dates, to change to TAP flights outside the strike period, within the same cabin.
The establishment of minimum services – flights whose implementation has to be ensured by the Union – will be expected in the forthcoming days.
Any updated information concerning this situation will be published as soon as possible in all of our communication channels.
TAP will make all efforts in order to minimize the impact of the strike on our passengers.
TAP regrets all the inconveniences caused by this decision of the Pilotsโ Union and will do everything in its power to ensure that this strike does not take place.
Copyright Photo: Chris Sands/AirlinersGallery.com. TAP Portugal’s Airbus A330-203 CS-TOR (msn 486) arrives at Miami International Airport.
TAP Portugal (Lisbon) has had a challenging year in 2014. As the government continues to move towards privatization, the company has been facing an on-going labor strife situation. TAP’s 12 unions had been planning to strike the company from December 27-30 in protest against the privatization. However the council of ministers remains resolved to privatize and has evoked a civil requisition to block the strike. Now the unions are threatening legal action against the government.
Read the full story from the Portugal News Online: CLICK HERE
Copyright Photo: SPA/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-214 CS-TNR (msn 3883) departs from London (Heathrow).
TAP Portugal (Miami) from June 28 through September 22, 2015 will go to daily service on the Lisbon-Miami route. Ironically this is the summer rainy season for Miami, the off season for North American visitors. The route is operated with Airbus A330s and A340s.
Copyright Photo: Pedro Baptista/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A330223 CS-TOH (msn 181) in the Star Alliance livery arrives at the Lisbon hub.
TAP Portugal (Lisbon) has issued this statement regarding a strike planned by its cabin staff on October 30 and November 1:
TAP Cabin Crew Union announced two separate strikes to take place on October 30 and November 1 between 00.00 and 23.59.
Therefore, and in order to mitigate as much as possible the effects of the strike, TAP is authorizing date changes free of charge within the same cabin and tickets validity, or its refund. In order to do so, passengers should contact TAP through the Contact Center or their Travel Agencies.
Despite the situation, we inform that TAP flights operated by PGA Portugรกlia Airlines will not be affected, as well as the flights established to operate as minimum services, available below.
All passengers with flights affected by the strike will be contacted, in order to find the best alternative.
Whenever the contact cannot be established TAP will reissue the ticket for the next available flights, keeping the schedule and dates as closer as possible to the original ones.
We suggest passengers to check their bookings here and do the online check-in if the flights are confirmed. This option is available up to 72 hours prior to departure, despite some exceptions depending on the destination.
Beforehand, and due to the high number of calls received, we apologize for any delays that may occur on the Contact Center response.
TAP regrets the situation and assures all efforts are being made to minimize the impact of this strike.
In other news, TAP Portugal has announced the delay of its new services to Guinea-Bissau in west Africa for 45 days due to the Ebola virus concerns. The carrier had planned to start three weekly flight from Lisbon to Guinea-Bissau on October 28.
Copyright Photo: TAP’s Airbus A321-211 CS-TJE (msn 1307) taxies at London (Heathrow).
TAP Portugal (Lisbon) will be flying to Bogotรก and Panama City four times a week starting in July. The new will operate on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with flights departing from Lisbon at 12 noon (1200) and arriving in Bogotรก at 3:55 pm (1555). The flight then leaves for Panamรก at 4:55 pm (1655), arriving there at 6:25 pm (1825). The return flight departs for Lisbon at 7:40 pm (1940), where it arrives at 11:00 am (1100) the following day (all local times).
The new route will operate with Airbus A330-200 aircraft with a seating capacity of 268.
TAP Portugal starting on July 1 will introduce new ATR 42-600 aircraft, replacing Beechcraft 1900Ds. TAP is also adding new service to Oviedo. The airline issued this statement:
TAP has announced the eleventh new route it will launch in 2014. The new route will connect Lisbon and Oviedo from July 1.
The launch of the Oviedo service has been made possible because of an important change to the fleet operated by PGA โ Portugรกlia Airlines (Lisbon), with the replacement of two 19-seater Beechcraft 1900D aircraft with two 46-seat ATR 42-600s, which also have a longer range.
Oviedo will become the eighth Spanish city with direct TAP flights, joining Madrid and Barcelona (which have direct flights from Lisbon, Porto and Funchal), Seville, La Coruรฑa, Bilbao, Malaga and Valencia.
In 2013, TAP carried 944,000 passengers between Portugal and Spain, a 6% increase from 2012.
Copyright Photo: Brian McDonough/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A330-223 CS-TOF (msn 308) of TAP Portugal arrives at Miami International Airport.
TAP Portugal (Lisbon) has announced the start of operations to Manaus and Belem, both cities in Northern Brazil, as of the beginning of June 2014. With the addition of these new destinations to its network, the company increases to 12 the number of gateways operated in Brazil and further strengthens its positioning as the worldโs leading airline in operation to that key market in South America.
The operation is to be launched with three weekly frequencies โ on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays โ and flights will operate the route Lisbon โ Manaus โ Belem โ Lisbon, thereby allowing TAP to enter for the first time into Northern Brazil, a region with great potential for tourism and where the offer of international flights is still very scarce.
Out of Portugal, flights will depart TAP Lisbon hub at 0930 and arrive in Manaus at 1340. After one hour turn-round time flights go on to Belem arriving there at 1740. At 1910 return flights depart Belem with arrival in Lisbon at 0645 (following day).
Manaus currently has a population of 2.3 million people and is the capital city of the State of Amazonas, which in the whole has a population of 3.6 million people. As the main gateway into Amazonia, Manaus is also a fast growing region in Brazil.
Belem is the capital city of the State of Para, with a population of 7.8 million people, of which 2.25 million in Belem only. The city is an important eco-tourism destination and a gateway into Amazonia as well.
Currently, neither Manaus nor Belem have direct flights to Europe in operation. Thus, the launch of TAP direct flights to those cities, that are the gateway into North Brazil, represent quite a significant step forward. From June 2014 onwards, customers will be provided with the most convenient and fastest connections to Lisbon and many other destinations beyond across the companyโs European network.
Currently, TAP operates direct flights to 10 gateways in Brazil: Fortaleza; Natal; Recife; Salvador; Brasilia; Belo Horizonte; Rio de Janeiro; Sao Paulo; Campinas and Porto Alegre, adding in the whole to 74 weekly frequencies operated in average. With the introduction of Manaus and Belem as new destinations, TAP will from now on cover all regions in the country, considerably reinforcing the reach of its network in Brazil.
Copyright Photo: Marcelo F. De Biasi/AirlinersGallery.com.ย Airbus A330-223 CS-TOK (msn 317) prepares to land at Sao Paulo (Guarulhos).
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