TAP resumes 27 weekly flights in June
TAP will be operating 27 flights a week in June, a plan that covers destinations such as New York, Luanda and Maputo. In July, it wants to have 19% of the operation it had before the pandemic.
TAP will be operating 27 flights a week by the end of June. The company intends to resume two flights a week to New York (USA) and one flight a week to Maputo (Mozambique), and connections between Lisbon and Madeira will be daily, according to the recovery plan published this Monday on the Portuguese airline’s website.
As of June 15, TAP also plans to return a weekly flight to Luanda (Angola) and, according to additional information sent to ECO, hopes that in the following month, in July, it will be possible “to resume 19% of what was its normal operation” before the coronavirus pandemic. This corresponds, according to the company, to a total of 247 flights per week in July.
The number of flights TAP will operate until the end of June and July still falls short compared to the 3,000 weekly flights that the company operated before the pandemic. However, it represents a significant increase compared to the 18 weekly flights that TAP has operated since the 18th, a number that it will maintain until the end of May. It is also a sign of an attempt to return to normality as countries ease the containment measures implemented in mid-March.
An official TAP source recalls that “during May, operations to London [United Kingdom] and Paris [France], between Porto and Lisbon were progressively added, and since the 18th, two flights a week to S. Paulo and one flight a week to Rio de Janeiro [both destinations in Brazil]”. Thus, in June, the company plans to restore more intercontinental flights, carrying out “a more significant resumption of activity” by the end of July. Even so, the group acknowledges that this is a level of activity “still far from what it was” before the current health crisis.
July will be a month of acceleration in this deconfinement, which is also reflected in TAP’s recovery plan. “On intercontinental flights, the operation to Brazil is increased, with the resumption of flights to Recife and Fortaleza, to North America (Boston, Toronto and Miami) and to Africa, where connections to Praia, São Vicente and Dakar are restored,” highlights the company’s official source.
“It is also worth mentioning that, on departure from Porto, besides the connections already being made to Lisbon, which will increase to three per day, in July direct connections from Porto to the main markets of destination and origin of TAP passengers from Francisco Sá Carneiro airport will be restored,” says the same source, who adds “it will be possible to fly directly between Porto and Paris, Luxembourg and Madeira. Faro is counting on two flights a day to Lisbon.
