TAP continues to monitor dynamically the development of the coronavirus outbreak and to take the measures necessary to minimize the serious economic impact of this situation in as agile a manner as possible.
The airline has decided to reduce its capacity over the coming months by around 2,500 flights in addition to the reduction of 1,000 flights announced last week. This means there will be a total reduction of 3,500 flights, equivalent to 7% of all flights scheduled in March, 11% of flights in April and 19% of flights in May.
These measures are justified by the recent fall in the number of bookings for travel in the coming months.
TAP’s priority since the outbreak of the coronavirus is to protect the health of the company’s employees and passengers, with the airline actively working and collaborating with the most important bodies, first and foremost with the Directorate-General for Health, but also with the World Health Organization, the ECDC, the CDC, IATA, ICAO and EASA.
The airline activated its contingency plan at the beginning of the outbreak. This plan includes all the recommendations and procedures outlined by national and international health authorities.
The cancellations now announced continue to focus particularly on those services operating to cities in the most affected regions, especially Italy; however, there will also be a reduction of services to other European destinations that have demonstrated greater falls in demand, such as Spain and France. The cancellations also affect some intercontinental flights, which is inevitable given TAP’s operational model as a long-haul and connecting airline.
TAP will contact all passengers affected by these cancellations and will seek to find the best options and alternatives that will enable them to take their trips.
To ensure greater flexibility and to offer its clients greater peace of mind, since yesterday TAP is permitting flight alterations free of charge for bookings made before the end of March. TAP clients can now change the date of travel, or their destination, for any tickets purchased between 8 and 31 March without being charged a change fee.
Exemption from the change fee is available for flights operated by TAP on all routes, dates and fare (except discount fares) when the tickets were purchased during the month of March. TAP Miles&Go and Corporate clients are also eligible for this offer.
