TAP Air Portugal, which added Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to its route map in May, continues to grow its presence in North America with 11 destinations now served.
The carrier on June 3 kicked off its second route from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) with a 1X-weekly seasonal Airbus A330neo service to Terceira in the Azores scheduled to run through Aug. 26. TAP already operates to Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS) from SFO.
LAX joined the carrier’s network in mid-May with 4X-weekly nonstop service to LIS. The exclusive route is also being operated with an A330neo.
TAP COO Mário Chaves tells Aviation Week the carrier was increasingly generating one-stop traffic between LAX and LIS via SFO, Miami (MIA) and New York John F. Kennedy (JFK) airports. “We decided, based on the traffic that was already traveling to Lisbon [one-stop from LAX], to start this 4X-weekly service,” Chaves says. “We decided it was time to go there.”
The LIS-LAX route, with a flight time of around 11 hr., is scheduled to be operated through Oct. 25. It could potentially be extended to year-round, Chaves says.
TAP also in May opened service between Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) and Porto’s Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport (OPO). That route, also exclusive to TAP, will be flown 4X-weekly with an A321LR aircraft.
“We initially thought of those routes” being flown seasonally through Oct. 25, Chaves continues. “We have been evaluating continuing both routes through the winter. We have been looking at market trends. We haven't decided yet. They are still seasonal, but definitely we want to move to year-round services as soon as the market response is there.”
Chaves says TAP does not expect to add any more North American routes or destinations this year. The airline carried 1.59 million passengers between Portugal and North America in 2024, up 8.9% year-over-year, making it the fastest-growing region served by the airline.
“We believe we still have some North American routes” to add in the future, Chaves says. “There is still demand out there. Over the next four or five years, we have a few [North American] routes to open and I believe two or three new destinations to open as well.”
Capacity constraints at LIS are an impediment to TAP growing in the Americas and elsewhere. “Lisbon has very limited available slots to grow,” Chaves notes. “Any possible growth in Lisbon will be very limited for environmental reasons.”
While a new Lisbon airport is targeted for a mid-2030s opening, growth at LIS over the next 10 years will be “marginal,” the COO says.
TAP is eyeing utilizing OPO to facilitate international growth given LIS’s constraints.”Boston is a good example of us extending to Porto,” he says. “We are trying to expand as much as we can.”
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