aviation - the past, present and future of flight

being leased out to other operators. As the

remainder of the short-haul  eet needed

renewing, an order for seven A320s followed

and delivery of these began during 1991. Two

years later, TAP looked at its requirements for

the long-haul market and decided upon the

A340-300 and a contract for  ve was signed.

As this was happening, other elements of

the Boeing  eet were reaching retirement

and TAP sold off its older 727s and 737s,

gradually replacing them with Airbus A319s,

A320s and A321s.

Following Expo 98 and Portugal’s hosting

of the UEFA European football championships

in 2004, passenger numbers began to rise

signi cantly and in 2005 TAP declared that it

had carried 6.5 million passengers for the  rst

time in its history. The airline was rebranded

as TAP Portugal and became a member of

the Star Alliance network.

The route network to Brazil was expanded

and by 2007 there were 47  ights a week

between Portugal and Brazil. Short-haul

routes were not forgotten and during 2009

six A320s were integrated into the  eet to

operate the new routes.

A NEW PLAYER IN TOWN

Portugália, a company owned by the banking

group Espírito Santo, had begun operating on

domestic routes within Portugal in 1990. The

company grew quickly, operating Fokker 100s

and later Embraer ERJ 145s, using them

not only in Portugal but on short-haul routes

to nearby countries such as France and

Morocco. As such, Portugália became TAP’s

main competitor within Portugal.

Over successive years between 2001

and 2005 it won awards for being the best

regional airline and it was not long before

TAP began to take a greater interest in the

local upstart. On November 6, 2006, TAP

and Portugália announced TAP’s acquisition

of 99% of the company’s shares. This

affectively ended the  edgling carrier’s

independence and the integration with the

bigger airline began.

TAP had seen that Portugália’s routes

could effectively feed its own existing

services. However, to achieve this some of

the smaller airline’s  eet had to be replaced

and TAP announced that it would buy two

ATR 72-600s to replace the Beech 1900Ds

that had been used, among other types, to

develop the initial services. This was followed

by a complete rebranding of the feeder

services as part of a wider restructuring

within the TAP group and the company

became known as TAP Express.

As part of this the Fokkers and the

ERJs were retired and orders were placed

for a further seven ATR 72-600s, nine

Embraer 190s and four Embraer 195s for

TAP Express.

On June 24, 2015, TAP was privatised

once again, when the Atlantic Gateway

Consortium purchased 61% of the

Portuguese government holding. The

company is led by Brazilian-born David

Neeleman, who founded JetBlue and Azul,

together with Portuguese entrepreneur

Humberto Pedrosa, whose background is

in transport and logistics. The option to buy

the remaining 34% of the airline’s shares

currently held by the government remains on

the table with a possible option to complete

during this year. The other 5% is currently

held by TAP’s employees.

UPDATING THE FLEET

The privatisation has brought about some

restructuring and another name change, and

in 2017 the airline was rebranded as TAP

Air Portugal once again. The current  eet

comprises 90 aircraft, 68 of which are Airbus

types. Six of the early A320s have now been

disposed of, but there are orders on the

Airbus books for 15 A320neo (new engine

option) variants, 24 A321neos and 14 A330-

900neos. TAP is the launch customer for the

A330-900neo and this commitment replaces

the previous one for a dozen A350-900s.

From its early days as a carrier between

its former colonies, TAP has had to

overcome numerous difficulties to become a

signi cant European-based player. On the

way it has weathered political and  nancial

storms. Its heavily unionised labour force

caused the airline to suspend its services on

occasions and it is also rare among major

carriers in having rolled over its entire  eet

from one major manufacturer to another.

With a new management team, and a new

 eet on order, the opportunities for the

airline are unbounded.

36 Aviation News incorporating Jets September 2018

‘Like many other

operators at the time,

TAP was eyeing the

Boeing 747 for its

Europe-USA work’

TAP Air Portugal is the Airbus A330neo’s launch operator, with

its  rst example (CS-TUA)  ying on May 15 this year. Airbus

The  rst Airbus A320-200 joined the  eet in February 1999, and the airline currently has 22 in

its inventory. This example, CS-TNW, was delivered to TAP in May 2014. TAP Air Portugal