TAP’s new Lisbon-Boston daily service started last Saturday but already there are problems with TAP chairman Fernando Pinto having to spend an unexpected extra night in Boston after a technical problem grounded a new Airbus A330.
Pinto was not alone as the delay in the return to Lisbon obliged all 256 passengers to spend another night in the US, one of them was the US ambassador in Portugal, Robert Sherman.
On the third day of the new route's operation, the A330 should have taken off at 19:45 on Monday and landed five hours later in the Portuguese capital.
The embarrassing ‘technical anomaly’ was solved by engineers and the flight took off the next day with a relieved Pinto on board.
The daily route between Lisbon and Boston was launched with much fanfare last Saturday and is the first time for 20 years that the two cities have been served by TAP.
TAP, now half-owned by Gateway whose owners include the experienced airline mogul David Neeleman, has taken delivery of two Airbus A330-200 aircraft as part of a long overdue fleet upgrade.
