TAP Air Portugal yesterday (June 1) launched its first Airbus A321LR trans-Atlantic service from Porto to New York.
The airline is wrongly claiming this is the world’s first A321LR trans-Atlantic revenue flight but this was already accomplished by Air Transat on May 15, 2019, from Montrรฉal (Trudeau) to Nantes, France.
All photos by TAP.
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).
TAP Portugal:ย 
TAP Portugal (Lisbon) is facing an employee strike on March 21-23.
Read the full story from Portugal News Online: CLICK HERE
Copyright Photo: Paul Denton.ย Airbus A319-112 CS-TTQ (msn 629) approaches Zurich for landing.
TAP Portugal:ย 
TAP Portugal (Lisbon) posted a $20.6 million profit in 2012.
The airline issued the following financial statement:
With a profit of 15.9 million euros in 2012, this was well above the 3.1 million in 2011, TAP SA achieved positive results for the fourth consecutive year.ย ย
In 2012, total debt was reduced from 1042 TAP million to 862 million, which represents an improvement of 21%.ย Note also that the total debt, which in 2011 represented 46% of total income and gains, fell to 35% in 2012.
Obtaining a positive net income for the fourth year was made possible by the company’s growth, which reached 4.4% with over 10,186 million passengers, surpassing for the first time in its history the barrier of 10 million.
Total revenues in financial year 2012 amounted to 2,429 million euros, showing an increase of 6.9% compared to 2273 million in the previous year, highlighting the Maintenance Assistance (Third Party) with an improvement of 23% and ticket revenues with a growth of 6.7%.
Operating costs, excluding fuel, stood at 1,422 million euros, 4.8% more than the 1,357 recorded in 2011.ย The fuel bill, whose cost has not stopped growing since 2008, had in 2012 an additional 93 million euros, up 13% compared to 2011.
The positive results of TAP reflect the continuing effort to improve efficiency, achieved through productivity gains and decreased consumption.
Operating results were also positive at 43.4 million euros, 5.6% better than the 41.1 recorded in 2011.
While increasing the supply (PKO) 4.1%, the national airline increased demand (PKU) of 4.8%, which allowed also improve the load factor of 76.3% in 2011 to the 76.8 percent in 2012.
Copyright Photo: Dave Glendinning.ย Airbus A320-214 CS-TNP (msn 2178) in the Star Alliance livery taxies to the runway at London (Heathrow).
TAP Portugal:ย
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