TAP Air Portugal, the leading airline from the UK to Portugal, has marked a historic point in its 74-year history. With the arrival of another A330neo – CS-TUI, which has been named King Afonso Henriques – the company has 100 aircraft in its fleet for the first time with 71 new aircraft due to arrive by 2025. The new airplanes have allowed TAP to open new routes with the airline continuing to grow in Brazil, a market in which TAP retains market leadership in connections to Europe and where there has been a 22.8% increase in the number of passengers between 2015 and 2018.
TAP also has a strong commitment to the North Atlantic market, where there has been a 176.5% growth in passenger numbers between 2015 and 2018, alongside a quadrupling of the number of seats available in the past four years. TAP was the fastest growing European airline on routes to the United States, offering 245,000 more seats compared to 2015. TAP will continue receiving new aircraft throughout 2019, with new routes launching to Chicago, San Francisco and Washington in June 2019.
In 2018, TAP was responsible for bringing 4 million tourists to Portugal, who contributed 5.5 billion euros to the national economy. The new fleet is also an important contribution to the country. Each new TAP aircraft makes a significant contribution to the country’s GDP, generating an average of €28 million in duties and taxes each year to the Portuguese economy and creating more than 750 jobs in Portugal on average.
The growth in TAP’s fleet has, in just four years, placed the company above the growth average of other leading European airlines: TAP’s fleet grew by 21% between 2015 and 2018, while other European airlines have grown by just 13% on average, according to data from Flight Global.
With regard to transported passengers, TAP also grew above the average of other European reference companies: 39% more passengers transported between 2015 and 2018, compared to an average of 19% over the same period in the other competing European airlines.
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For the record, someone is using my name "Denby" so please, go find your own name !
Second, Portugal was for many of us a refuge from the harum-scarum fast life of the rest of the world. Sadly, with the "progressive" activities of companies like TAP, the harum-scarum fast life catches up with us.
Lastly, for how long can we view an increase in activity like this as progress? At some point in the next few years, we shall be saying that the planet cannot support such economic growth. Planet Earth is a finite resource, and such growth cannot continue indefinitely. We must begin to measure progress in a different way.
Still, always helpful to remind our readership that attacking the British in the air and underwater were not options when the Portuguese anthem was written soon after 1890. So left out as optional choices for doing battle - Sobre a terra, sobre o mar, Às armas, às armas! Pela patria lutar! Contra os Bretões marchar, marchar! Show respect to our hosts on 2019 EU voting day by learning this chorus by heart: as they have!