TAP Portugal
Encyclopedia : T : TA : TAP : TAP Portugal
TAP Portugal (Transportes Aéreos Portugueses) (IATA: TP, ICAO: TAP, and Callsign: Air Portugal) is the national airline of Portugal, based in Lisbon. It operates to destinations in Europe, Africa and North, Central and South America.
History
The airline was founded on March 14 1945, beginning commercial service on September 19 1946 from Lisbon to Madrid under its original name of Transportes Aereos Portugueses (TAP). On 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.
The one millionth passenger flew on TAP on June 19 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 Web site. 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.
TAP Portugal has shareholdings in a number of other airlines: White (75%), Air Sao Tome e Principe (40%), Linhas Aereas de Sao Tome e Principe (40%) and Air Macau (15%).
Destinations
- Further information: TAP Portugal destinations
Fleet
The TAP Portugal fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of June 2006 via website [link]and press releases [link]):
| Type | Number | Seats | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus A310-300 | 6 | 200 | |
| Airbus A319-100 | 16 | 132 | |
| Airbus A320-200 | 12 | 156 | |
| Airbus A321-200 | 3 | 194 | |
| Airbus A330-221 | 3 (7 on order) | Currently being delivered | |
| Airbus A340-300 | 4 | 274 |
The average age of the TAP fleet is 9.1 years (at April 2006)
Formerly Operated
- Sud-Aviation Caravelle
- Boeing 707
- Boeing 727
- Boeing 737
- Boeing 747
- Lockheed TriStar
External links
- [TAP Portugal]
- [TAP Portugal Fleet Age]
- [TAP Portugal Fleet Detail via website]
- [TAP Portugal Fleet Detail via Planespotter.net]
- [TAP Portugal Passenger Opinions]
| Members of the Star Alliance
|
| Air Canada • Air New Zealand • ANA • Asiana Airlines • Austrian Airlines • bmi LOT Polish Airlines • Lufthansa • Scandinavian Airlines • Singapore Airlines • South African Airways Spanair • Swiss • TAP Portugal • Thai Airways • United Airlines • US Airways • Varig Regional members: Adria Airways • Blue1 • Croatia Airlines Future members: Air China • Shanghai Airlines Former members: Ansett Australia • Mexicana |
|
Lists of Aircraft | Aircraft manufacturers | Aircraft engines | Aircraft engine manufacturers
| Airlines | Air forces | Aircraft weapons | Missiles | Timeline of aviation |
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.