To maximise loads, stopovers were made
at Sal (Cape Verde Islands) and Recife on
the northeast coast of Brazil. The ights
were restricted to Brazilian and Portuguese
citizens or resident foreigners, and the low
fares made them extremely popular. By this
time, the Brazilian capital had been moved
to Brasilia, but the commercial organisations
were still based in Rio and even in the early
1960s, the population of Rio was ve million.
This marked the beginning of long-haul
route expansion by TAP and was closely
followed by an inaugural service to Goa with
the Constellations. That ight took 19 hours,
with ve intermediate stopovers.
NEW ROUTES, NEW AIRCRAFT
TAP was still in private hands and expanding
rapidly. In 1962 the carrier took delivery of
the rst of four Sud Caravelle VI-Rs, which
it put into service on ights to the Azores
and Canary Islands, Geneva, Munich and
Frankfurt. Two years later, the airline had
carried one million passengers for the rst
time. By then, the eet comprised six Super
Constellations and four Caravelles and its
route network had increased to include
Portuguese interests in Guinea-Bissau and
Madeira.
The rst Boeing 707-300 was delivered
to TAP on December 16, 1965, followed by
11 more examples of the type. They were
quickly put into operation, replacing the
Constellations on the Lisbon-Rio route, the
rst ight taking place on June 17, 1966,
thus marking the rst non-stop service
between the two cities. Two of the 707s
were used as freighters.
The eet changeover had begun and
by 1967 the airline had become the rst
European carrier to have an all-jet inventory.
It had received the rst of eight Boeing 727-
100s followed by eight 727-200s (several were
combis with freight doors), which would formthe backbone of its short-and medium-haul
eet for the next 20 years.
The 707s had also opened new services
to New York and Boston during 1969-1970
and were operating on the high-density
routes to Angola and Mozambique. Like
many other operators at the time, TAP was
eyeing the Boeing 747 for its Europe-USA
work and ordered two series -200 aircraft
for delivery in 1972. This was followed by
a purchase for two more soon after, which
were delivered in 1974 and 1975.WIND OF CHANGE
By 1974, TAP had a 32-aircraft eet, which
was ying to more than 40 cities around
the world. In several of Portugal’s colonies,
independence movements were ghting for
self-rule, notably Angola, Guinea-Bissau
and Mozambique, but the Portuguese
dictatorship was determined to hang on to
the remainder of its long-held empire.http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 33
Airbus A340-312, CS-TOC, is one of four
examples of the type in TAP’s long-haul
eet. AirTeamImages.com/Rui AlvesFormer USAAF Douglas C-47 Skytrain CS-TDA was used on the Lisbon to Madrid run in the late 1940s-early 1950s. Key Collection