TAP | News, deals and offers from TAP

Marking the Christmas period, TAP offered 18 children from Gaia supported by the Gaia Social Institution, the opportunity to fly by plane for the first time.

TAP is to fly from Lisbon to Warsaw, Moscow and Helsinki from June of next year with a basic five flights a week to each of the new destinations. TAP will be increasing flights to one a day to the capital of Poland during the peak season from July 22 to September 6.

TAP and Dom Pedro Hotels have signed a partnership that allows the 800 thousand members of the TAP Victoria Program to earn miles for each stay at any hotel in the Dom Pedro Hotel Group in Lisbon, Madeira and along the Algarve coast.

TAP punctuality registered in October was above the EAA (European Airline Association) with 84 percent of company flights departing at their scheduled times while according to the latest data released for August average EAA punctuality was around 80 percent.

TAP has launched a major 59 Euro ticket campaign valid on all destinations in Europe, offering an even more attractive price than the one offered in the campaign held in September. This special offer, valid on departures from Lisbon and Porto includes the 35 destinations in Europe to which TAP runs direct flights as well as flights between Lisbon and Porto and Madeira.

TAP is to increase its flights to Madeira and the Azores during the Christmas and New Year period offering its passengers 103 extra flights in total between December 14, 2008 and January 6, 2009.

TAP’s 18 percent increase in revenue between January and August was insufficient to compensate for the brutal rise on fuel costs with the result that the airline registered losses of 133 million euros at the close of the first eight months of 2008.

TAP has improved use of the potential of QPX software from ITA Software, Inc, the leading American company supplying innovative IT solutions to the aviation industry. Investing in differentiation through quality and price, in June TAP launched five new products that can be purchased on its website using the advantages of QPX in online commercialization.

TAP is increasing its flights to Oslo by launching an extra two flights a week between Lisbon and the Norwegian capital, a leg that already currently runs one flight a day. These two new flights will start up in the beginning of January 2009 and will run on Fridays and Saturdays departing Lisbon at 11:25pm and arriving in Oslo at 4:25am (Flight TP508). Flights leave the Norwegian capital on Saturdays and Sundays at 5:10am and land in Lisbon at 8:20am (Flight TP509).

From October 27, TAP begins flights to Morocco. Flights will run on daily basis between Lisbon and Casablanca except on Sundays in a total of six flights a week. Demand for this new destination has already come to confirm the uptake of passengers of this investment by the Company in one of the largest and most important cities in Morocco.

On the 11th September, TAP announced the largest low-cost travel sale offer ever held in Portugal, putting 300 thousand tickets at 64 Euros on the market valid on flights to any destination in Europe that the Company runs direct flights to. With this special offer TAP is offering a total of 35 destinations in Europe with direct flights from Lisbon and 13 destinations from Porto.

With a view to constantly increasing the service it provides its passengers with, TAP is now offering tap-plus and Victoria Silver card holders new check-in desks with differential customer care alongside the tap-executive check-in desks. These desks are located in Premium Space, an exclusive area created by TAP in June to offer support to tap-executive passengers, Victoria Gold and tap-corporate cardholders.

From October 26 TAP is increasing flights to some destinations. The company is responding to increased demand in a flexible way to existing opportunities for expansion and in this case doubling its flights to Sao Tome in comparison with the winter period of last year.

On August 1 TAP topped a new total number of passengers transported in a single day with a record amount of 33,464. The company has thus improved its previous record by six percent in relation to the last goal achieved on August 11 2007 with 31,714 passengers transported on the same day.

From August 11 at Lisbon Airport, Tap Executive, Tap Plus passengers or Gold and Silver Victoria Program and TAP Corporate Card members are now offered a new security control and priority x-ray handling service that will help facilitate faster access to the departure lounge.

In a joint tender process, TAP along with 5 other member-companies of the Star Alliance selected the Menzies Aviation company to provide ground-based handling services at Terminal 1 at Heathrow Airport in London. With the choice of this new handling company Alliance companies hope to improve the quality of the service they provide their customers with at London Airport as well as save over 1 million euros a year.

According to analysis run by the Forum Empresarial magazine published this week, TAP is currently the largest Portuguese service provider. This classification is based on its turnover and the increase in revenue observed in 2007 that has contributed decisively to TAP attaining this distinguished position. In 2006 the national airline transporter ranked in third place.

From the start of June TAP passengers flying between Portugal and Brazil can now watch TV Globo International programming during flights. The two companies have set up a partnership that includes the series “1808 – The Court in Brazil”, a program distributed by TV Globo International to be shown between June and December.

TAP has inaugurated its new Premium Space (Premium Customer Centre), an innovative multifaceted structure where Classe Executiva (Business Class) customers or Victoria Program gold card holders and TAP Corporate card holders are now attended to in an exclusive zone within Lisbon airport.

Accor Hospitality and TAP have celebrated a partnership that enables the 750 thousand TAP Victoria Program members to earn air miles each time they stay at one of more than 1500 hotels in more than one hundred different countries. This agreement includes the Sofitel, Pullman, Novotel and Mercure hotel networks.

For the fifth consecutive year TAP has been awarded the prize as “Best Airline Company” by the Publituris newspaper once again receiving the majority vote of the readers of this prestigious publication.

From July 2nd, TAP begins operating its third weekly flight between Lisbon and Bissau. This new flight will run every Wednesday adding to the flights the Company already runs on Fridays and Sundays.

In its July edition, UP – dare to dream higher – takes us to Fortaleza, the capital of the State of Ceara in Brazil. There sun-kissed and welcoming lands offer visitors 573 kilometers of coastline with paradisiacal beaches and a fascinating inland country with a wide range of landscapes ranging from the green of the Atlantic coastal forests to the golden-brown of the badlands inland.

TAP has launched its first commercial test of in-flight cell phone use. This system offered by OnAir – a company specializing in SITA and Airbus mobile communications – enables TAP passengers to make or receive voice calls, send text and e-mail messages using their own cell phones.

TAP is to reorganize its operations from October by suspending the number of flights on some routes with more reduced occupancy levels as well as an integrated emergency plan designed to face increased fuel prices.