TAP Air Portugal said it aims to double operations in North America in the next few years and is expanding again adding two new routes to the US in 2019 with nonstop service from Lisbon, to Washington, D.C and Chicago.
The Portuguese carrier will start a five-weekly service between Chicago O’Hare and Lisbon on 1 June, 2019, and then add a five-weekly route between Washington-Dulles and Lisbon on 16 June.
TAP is the launch carrier for the Airbus A330-900neo aircraft (pictured above), with 19 planned for delivery until the end of 2019. In all, TAP has a new fleet of 71 new aircraft being delivered until 2025, also including 19 A320neos, 17 A321neos, and 14 A321s.
This huge fleet growth it said allows TAP to launch new destinations and spread the global network offered to the airline’s costumers.
TAP’s chief executive officer, Antonoaldo Neves said: “We have 10 gateways in Brazil with service from Portugal. We believe we can support the same number to the US. So, we have several more new destinations in North America in our planning. USA are already TAP’s third major market worldwide and has great potential for further growth.
“Our network beyond Lisbon is also growing. We now serve 55 destinations in Europe and 17 in Africa and most of our passengers fly with TAP to final destinations beyond Portugal.”
