aviation - the past, present and future of flight

factory-fresh aircraft from Seattle took
place in 1983.
That same year the irst of seven
Lockheed L-1011-500s TriStars began to
arrive. These had been ordered to replace
the 707s, which were being withdrawn, and
additionally to provide adequate capacity on
the routes formerly operated by the 747s.

EUROPEAN EXPANSION
TAP had formed Air Atlantis in 1985, officially
a wholly-owned subsidiary, but with a base
at Faro. This venture aimed to bring holiday
traffic from Northern Europe to Portugal,

which was beginning to increase signiicantly
because of the nation’s successful
application to join the European Economic
Community (EEC), as it was known at the
time. This gave TAP the opportunity to
switch some of the older aircraft, such as the
Boeing 707s, the early series 727s and the
737-200s, to this operation. This was also
the year in which TAP carried two million
passengers for the irst time.

Portugal became a full member of the

EEC in 1986 and it was clear that this would

increase the volume of traffic carried by the

airline. At this point TAP started looking

at future leet requirements. This led to

the gradual departure of the Boeing 727s,

replaced initially by Boeing 737-200s on

some routes. The long-term replacement

was to be the 737-300, with the irst of 13

deliveries beginning in 1990.

Not all of TAP’s leet were large aircraft,

however. One unusual aspect of the

company’s operation was the link between

Madeira and its sister island of Porto Santo.

Although even in the 1980s Porto Santo had

a runway long enough – 6,000ft (1,828m)

• to accommodate larger aircraft, two DHC
  Twin Otters in full TAP colours were used
  to connect the islands. At the time there
  was little in the way of tourist infrastructure
  and most of the traffic carried was inter-
  island, with connections to domestic and
  international routes through Funchal. The
  Twin Otters operated between 1980 and
  1990. In addition to this, and unusually for
  a large carrier, TAP Regional had two even
  smaller aircraft on its books – a seven-seat
  Beech E90 King Air and two ive-seat Beech
  Barons. These aircraft were operated in the
  early 1980s on domestic routes.

AIRBUS ARRIVES

Most airlines with signiicant leets are

normally extremely reluctant to change

manufacturer once they have decided

upon an aircraft type. The investment in

new equipment and retraining to support a

change is expensive and time consuming.

Manufacturers will usually help new operators,

both inancially and logistically, but it is

nevertheless a mammoth undertaking. TAP

had been looking at a wider route network

and, after carrying out studies, took the bold

decision to dispose of the Boeing leet and

replace it with Airbus machines.

In 1987, TAP committed to buy seven

A310s with the intention of using them to

replace the L-1011s, some of which were

http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 35

The airline operated a dozen Boeing 737-200s in the 1980s, including CS-TEQ. TAP Air Portugal

TAP Lockheed L-1011 Tristar 500 CS-TED at Frankfurt in 1990. AirTeamImages.com/Ralf Meyermann

Boeing 727-282 CS-TBX, which served with the airline from March 1980 until December 1991. Bob O’Brien Collection