Unless you live in New York, Boston or Miami, the degree of difficulty to get to Portugal has never been an easy task. U.S. travelers to mainland Europe’s far-flung westernmost nation either have to transit in a European gateway or fly to one of the three TAP Air Portugal U.S. hubs of Boston, Newark or Miami.
TAP continues a quest to link Portugal to newly well thought-out destinations expanding its routes to Europe, Africa, and North America. The growth includes three new routes in the U.S. market.
On June 1, TAP began five weekly flights to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport; June 16 marked the arrival of five weekly flights to Washington’s Dulles Airport, but the flight that revamps the TAP landscape is the long-awaited first flight between Portugal and the west coast. On June 10, TAP began its expansion doubling operations to the U.S. with five weekly flights between Lisbon and San Francisco.
Non-stop flights linking SFO with Portugal’s capital of Lisbon makes perfect sense for numerous reasons. “I think that connecting flights limit the number of people traveling. The San Francisco Bay Area has a large Portuguese population. There are 3rd generation Portuguese who want to visit their homeland,” said TAP shareholder and board-member David Neeleman. He mentioned both destinations being technology centers, “Portugal has a burgeoning tech community, and there is the tech summit every November. There is a lot of demand for traveling back and forth. We’re a great gateway to Europe and Africa. We offer an exciting product at a reasonable price.”
On hand at the ribbon-cutting ceremony at SFO was Maria Joao Lopes-Cardoso. “This is a toast to America. The Declaration of Independence was toasted by fortified Madeira wine because it traveled well, and the founding fathers liked Madeira wine. Let’s toast to America and all nations,” said Cardoso.
Cardoso also mentioned the similarities between Lisbon and San Francisco. “Both of our cities have amazing bridges in the Golden Gate Bridge and April 25 Bridge. We also both have trolleys or cable cars, steep hills, and are centers for technology,” said the consul general.
A long-awaited upgrade of TAP’s aging fleet began with a new order of 71 new planes. The new long-haul planes will consist of 22 new Airbus A330-900 aircraft and 14 Airbus A321LR with configured with comfortable Recaro CL6710 fully flat seats in their business class cabin.
“Portugal is clearly on the list of favored nations among travelers. The World Travel Awards named Portugal as the world’s best destination to visit, “mentioned Tap Chairman Miguel Frasquilho.
The key is “access.” Over the last five years, TAP has been the fastest growing airline in Europe. With Portugal’s escalating popularity, the new non-stop flights to Chicago, Washington D.C. and San Francisco, all with new aircraft will bring more visitors who perhaps found the destination challenging to sojourn.
