Tag Archives: Lisbon

Ryanair cancels 700 flights at Lisbon this winter, attacks TAP’s “hoarding of take-off and landing slots”

Ryanair has made this announcement:

Ryanair has confirmed it has been forced to cancel 700 flights and three Lisbon routes (to Tours, Oujda and Bari) this Winter due to TAP’s continued hoarding of take-off and landing slots (which TAP does not use) at Lisbon Portela Airport. This anti-competitive “slot blocking” has prevented Ryanair from obtaining sufficient slots (despite the assistance of the slot coordinator and the airport operator), for planned new route growth. TAP’s plan to cut its fleet by 20% means it simply cannot use all the slots it holds.

The airline continued;

These cancelled flights will damage Lisbon’s connectivity and post-Covid recovery. The Portuguese Government and the European Commission must now intervene to end TAP’s anti-competitive “slot blocking”, free up this UNUSED capacity at Lisbon Portela and open Lisbon Montijo Airport to allow airlines to grow. It is essential that Portugal’s critical national infrastructure is used to support the local economy and not abused to protect an inefficient zombie airline, which the Portuguese Government has already wasted €3 billion of taxpayers’ money on.

Ryanair will keep all seven aircraft (a $700 m investment) and crew in place in Lisbon this Winter to ensure it is ready and able to reinstate all flights if sufficient slots are freed up.

Delta to add Boston – Lisbon service for next summer

Delta Air Lines starting on May 23, 2019 will add daily Boston – Lisbon service. The new route will be operated with Boeing 757-200 equipment.

Delta Air Lines has made this announcement:

Delta is giving Boston customers even more trans-Atlantic choices beginning next summer when the airline inaugurates new nonstop service to Lisbon, Portugal on May 23, 2019.

Lisbon flying complements existing Delta service to London-Heathrow, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin.

Through Delta and its partners, customers can access nonstop Seoul-Incheon service operated by joint venture partner Korean Air beginning in April; additional Amsterdam service by joint venture partner KLM starting on March 31; Mexico City service operated by partner Aeromexico; Paris-Charles de Gaulle service operated by joint venture partner Air France; London-Heathrow service operated by joint venture partner Virgin Atlantic; and Rome service operated by joint venture partner Alitalia.

The daily Lisbon service will operate from May 23 through September 3, 2019 on the following schedule:

Boston Logan International Airport – Lisbon Airport

Departs	Arrives
BOS at 9:45 p.m.	LIS at 9:15 a.m. (next day)

Lisbon Airport – Boston Logan International Airport

Departs	Arrives
LIS at 10:45 a.m.	BOS at 1:15 p.m.

The onboard Delta experience will be on Boeing 757-200 aircraft equipped with 20 seats in Delta Premium Select, 29 seats Delta Comfort+ and 150 seats in the Main Cabin. The onboard experience includes access to Wi-Fi, free personal in-flight seatback entertainment screens and power ports in every seat.

Later this month, Delta will mark its 50th and 51st nonstop destinations from Boston to Las Vegas and Philadelphia respectively.

Seasonal service that operated between Lisbon and Delta’s Atlanta hub during summer 2018 will not return in 2019.

Top Copyright Photo: Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-251 WL N552NW (msn 26499) FLL (Bruce Drum). Image: 104825.

Delta Air Lines aircraft slide show:

United to add summer seasonal fights from Newark and Washington Dulles to three international destinations

United Airlines (Chicago) is adding daily trans-Atlantic summer-season service next year between:

Newark and Athens, Greece, from May 25 through October 5, 2016
Washington/Dulles and Barcelona, Spain, from May 25 through September 6, 2016
Washington/Dulles and Lisbon, Portugal, May 25 through September 6, 2016

All services are subject to government approval.

Newark to Athens

United’s daily nonstop service between Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and Athens (ATH) will operate using Boeing 767-300 aircraft.

Flight times will be 9 hours 50 minutes eastbound and 11 hours westbound.

Washington/Dulles to Barcelona

The nonstop flights between Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) and Barcelona (BCN) will operate daily with Boeing 767-400 aircraft (above).

Flight times for the Barcelona service will be 8 hours 10 minutes eastbound and 9 hours 15 minutes westbound.

United has served Spain for more than 20 years, and this new service complements the airline’s existing year-round flights to both Barcelona and Madrid from Newark.

Washington/Dulles to Lisbon

The airline will use Boeing 757-200 aircraft for flights between Washington/Dulles and Lisbon (LIS).

Flight times will be 7 hours 25 minutes eastbound and 8 hours 20 minutes westbound.

These flights are in addition to United’s existing year-round service to Lisbon from Newark. In 2016, United will mark 19 years of Lisbon service.

United and United Express offer nearly 500 daily departures from the New York/Newark area to more than 150 destinations – the most in North America, the most across the Atlantic, the most across the Pacific and the most to and from Latin America.

United, together with United Express, operates nearly 225 flights daily from its Washington/Dulles hub to destinations throughout the United States and to Europe, Asia, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean.

United Airlines aircraft slide show (current livery):

EasyJet to start flights to the Azores

EasyJet (easyJet.com) (UK) (London-Luton) has announced that it is to commence four-times weekly flights between Lisbon and Ponta Delgada in the Azores as of March 2015. The marketing director for the company’s Portugal operations made the announcement.

José Lopes told journalists in the Azores capital: “Finally we have all the guarantees that we needed for us to be able to announce the opening of the Lisbon-Ponta Delgada route, which will be a reality from the end of March of next year,”

Lopes added that EasyJet will start with a 180-seater Airbus A320 making four flights. He said details of prices would be announced next week.

Report by Assistant Editor Oliver Wilcock from Manchester.

EasyJet (UK) aircraft slide show:

TAP Portugal to increase the frequency on the Miami route

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 aircraft slide show:

SAS acquires Cimber, Cimber to receive 12 Bombardier CRJ900s from SAS

Scandinavian Airlines-SAS (Stockholm) has acquired Cimber A/S (Sonderborg and Copenhagen). SAS issued this statement this morning:

SAS has entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares in Cimber A/S.

Since 2004, SAS has had a wet lease agreement (aircraft and crew) with Cimber A/S (Cimber) that has a cost efficient production platform for regional jet operation. The acquisition provides SAS with an opportunity to transfer production with smaller aircraft to Cimber, consisting of 12 Bombardier CRJ900s with a base in Copenhagen. As a result, a more focused and flexible production can be achieved.

The acquisition of Cimber, will give SAS access to a specialist within regional flights with a very competitive production platform that complements SAS’ production of larger Airbus and Boeing aircraft. Due to expected synergies, the acquisition of Cimber can also provide opportunities for SAS to maintain and develop regional routes within the network for the benefit of SAS customers, says Rickard Gustafson, SAS President & CEO.

The acquisition, includes Cimber’s option to receive CO2emission rights for the years 2015-2020. The nominal value of these rights currently amount to approximately MDKK 35 subject to the EU Commission’s approval of the Danish allocation plan for European Aviation Allowances (EUAA) for 2015-2020.

The discontinuation of Cimber’s current fleet of Bombardier CRJ200s and ATR 72s will be implemented as already communicated and decided by Cimber.

The value of the transaction is MDKK 20 with final payment in April 2015. The transaction must be approved by relevant Competition Authorities, and is subject to other customary conditions.

Copyright Photo: Pedro Baptista/AirlinersGallery.com. As previously reported, Cimber is retiring its CRJ200s. CRJ200 (CL-200-2B19) OY-RJB (msn 7419) arrives in Lisbon with “Flying for Scandinavian Airlines” and SAS titles.

SAS aircraft slide show:

US Airways trims the frequencies on some new Charlotte European routes

US Airways (Phoenix) is trimming back on four new European routes from the Charlotte hub according to the Charlotte Observer. The new routes from CLT to Barcelona, Brussels, Lisbon and Manchester were announced in October as daily flights (CLICK HERE to read the original report). However due apparent weak demand, the new flights are now being trimmed back to only four days a week.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Copyright Photo: Jay Selman/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 757-2B7 N201UU (msn 27180) arrives back at the Charlotte hub yesterday (April 20).

US Airways:

Ryanair opens new bases at Lisbon and Athens

Ryanair (Dublin) yesterday (April 1) opened its third Portuguese base at Lisbon (64th in total) with one based Boeing 737-800 and 7 new routes (11 in total) with 124 weekly flights.

The ultra low-fare airline also opened yesterday its third Greek base at Athens (65th in total) with two based Boeing 737-800s and 6 new routes with up to 150 weekly flights.

Copyright Photo: Robbie Shaw/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 737-8AS EI-EBS (msn 35001) with “Comunitat Valenciana” sub-titles departs from Marrakesh.

Ryanair:

TAP Portugal to open a new route to Bogota and Panama City in July, will add two ATR 42-600s

TAP Portugal (Lisbon) will be flying to Bogotá 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 Bogotá at 3:55 pm (1555). The flight then leaves for Panamá 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 — Portugália 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 Coruña, 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:

PGA-Portugalia Airlines:

euroAtlantic Airways celebrates 20 years of flying

euroAtlantic Airways (Lisbon) is celebrated its 20th Anniversary in 2013.

The airline was established as Air Zarco by Tomaz Metello and the largest Portuguese leisure corporation, Pestana Hotels and Resorts, on August 25, 1993. The charter airline adopted the name of Air Madeira in 1997 until May 17, 2000 when the current name of euroAtlantic Airways – Transportes Aéreos S.A. was adopted.

Copyright Photo: Pedro Baptista/Flyingphotos. Former Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-212 ER CS-TFM (msn 28513) departs from the Lisbon base with a large 20 Years 1993-2013 emblem.

euroAtlantic Airways: