TAP Air Portugal Marks 80th Year with New U.S. Routes

Friday, August 01, 2025

TAP Air Portugal A330-900neo climbs above Lisbon’s Tagus, marking 80th anniversary and new North American routes.

Celebrating its 80th Anniversary next year, TAP Air Portugal is leaning into the lucrative North American market with a refreshed corporate programme and three new transatlantic routes. Service from Boston to Porto began May 14, followed by Lisbon to Los Angeles on May 16 and a weekly San Francisco-Terceira flight on June 3. The expansion builds on a record 1.59 million North American passengers in 2024 and positions the Star Alliance carrier to capture pent-up corporate and bleisure demand across both coasts.

Key Points

Why it matters: TAP hit 1.59 million North America passengers in 2024, proving demand for Portugal links.
Travel impact: Three New Routes shorten connections for West Coast corporate travellers and open fresh bleisure options.
What's next: Year-round Los Angeles service and potential Porto growth signal wider U.S. expansion plans.
Corporate angle: Revamped TAP ForBiz site promises easier contract management and richer incentives for SMEs.

Snapshot (100 - 140 words)

North America is now TAP's fastest-growing region, up 8.9 percent year over year, and accounts for roughly one in ten of the carrier's global passengers. Boston-Porto targets New England's Portuguese diaspora and the industrial north of Iberia. Los Angeles-Lisbon answers the largest unserved Portugal link, capturing entertainment, aerospace, and tech traffic. Once-weekly San Francisco-Terceira taps the Azorean community and rising bleisure interest in the islands. The trio boosts TAP's U.S. gateways to eight, lifts peak-summer North American capacity past 90 000 seats a week, and, with partner codeshares, connects travelers to more than 50 onward European and African destinations with a single Lisbon or Porto stop.

Background (120 - 160 words)

Founded in 1945 as Transportes Aéreos Portugueses, TAP became the launch customer for the Airbus A330-900neo in 2018 and has pursued a strategy of transatlantic growth ever since. Before the pandemic the carrier flew just three U.S. gateways, but a post-2020 fleet renewal unlocked longer-range A321LRs and A330neos, enabling thinner point-to-point routes such as Chicago-Lisbon in 2022. The airline's stopover programme, which allows up to five nights in Portugal at no additional fare, has been a key differentiator for leisure travellers and an attractive perk for corporate itineraries. TAP is 72.5 percent state-owned and remains on Lisbon's agenda for reprivatisation in 2025. Management views North America's diverse corporate base, tech on the West Coast, finance in the East, and life sciences in between, as the growth engine that will strengthen valuations ahead of any Sale.

Latest Developments

Corporate Program Rebrands as TAP ForBiz

On July 16, TAP quietly rolled out TAP ForBiz, a replacement for its legacy TAP Corporate offering. The free-to-join platform lets companies earn credit on every ticket and redeem it for flights, upgrades, or ancillary services, with no minimum spend. According to Carlos Antunes, director for the Americas, the redesign streamlines travel managers' dashboards and aligns discount tiers more closely with annual volume. For small and midsize enterprises the carrier will match status in rival programmes, while multinational agreements remain bespoke. Fernanda Ottavio, head of North America sales, added that a growing share of bookings now originate west of the Mississippi, prompting a refreshed site optimised for mobile devices. Early adopters report savings of up to 12 percent on average business-class fares. Details and enrolment are available on the TAP ForBiz portal.

West Coast Service Anchors Growth Strategy

TAP's May 16 launch of four-weekly Los Angeles-Lisbon flights filled what industry analysts called the biggest remaining hole in the U.S.-Portugal network. Operating Airbus A330-900neo aircraft with 34 lie-flat seats, the route shaves two hours off itineraries that previously required a connection in Newark or London. The carrier has already committed to extend the service through winter 2025 and aims to make it daily if load factors exceed 80 percent. Entertainment studios in Burbank and tech firms in Irvine have signed new corporate deals, according to Ottavio, who expects a roughly 50-50 split between corporate and leisure traffic. Introductory round-trip fares started at $679 in economy and $2 499 in business. The flight departs Lisbon at 955 a.m. and returns from LAX at 440 p.m., enabling same-day West Coast connections. Full schedule details are available via AirserviceOne.

Boston-Porto and San Francisco-Terceira See Demand Surge

The northern city of Porto, home to Portugal's burgeoning tech and textile clusters, gained its first nonstop connection to Boston on May 14. The four-weekly Airbus A321LR service bypasses Lisbon's congestion and offers onward flights to 15 European destinations. Early data show average load factors above 84 percent, with half of premium-cabin seats booked by corporate travelers from New England's biomedical corridor. On June 3 TAP added a weekly San Francisco-Terceira tag flight, giving Silicon Valley residents a one-stop gateway to the Azores and mainland Portugal. The airline has already extended the seasonal Terceira operation through late September to accommodate bleisure demand. Management says a second weekly frequency could arrive in 2026 if tourism authorities underwrite marketing support. Porto and Terceira schedules can be found in the carrier's official press release.

Analysis (220 - 300 words)

TAP's 80th-anniversary makeover exemplifies a broader pivot among mid-sized European carriers toward high-yield North Atlantic traffic. The airline lacks the domestic feed enjoyed by Lufthansa Group peers, so it relies on geographic positioning and low unit costs to win U.S. travellers. The new West Coast services change the equation: with LAX and SFO now online, roughly 70 percent of the U.S. population lives within a two-hour connection to a TAP flight. That reach, combined with the stopover programme and transferable miles through Star Alliance partners like United, creates a sticky value proposition for travel managers under post-pandemic budget pressure.

The ForBiz relaunch is equally strategic. Legacy SMEs were often routed through online agencies rather than direct channels, denying TAP the data needed to negotiate tailored deals. By integrating dynamic discounting, ForBiz could lift corporate direct-booking share above the current 25 percent with minimal distribution cost.

Risks persist. Lisbon Airport's saturation remains unresolved while Montijo's replacement hub languishes in permitting. A capacity crunch during peak summer could erode on-time performance and undermine premium loyalty. Meanwhile, the Portuguese government's privatisation timeline may divert management attention just as JetBlue and Norse Atlantic test new Portugal services. Still, TAP's disciplined aircraft utilisation, with its A330-900neos averaging 14 block hours a day, suggests the carrier can defend margins even in a softer yield environment. For corporate buyers the question is not whether TAP will be cheaper, but whether the product reliability will keep pace with the network's ambitions.

Final Thoughts (90 - 120 words)

North American travellers, especially those balancing meetings with leisure, now have more nonstop options to reach Portugal and beyond. TAP's ability to pair competitive fares with a streamlined corporate programme gives travel managers fresh leverage when negotiating 2026 budgets. Yet the next 18 months will test whether operational resilience and airport capacity can keep pace with network growth. If the carrier executes, its 80th birthday could mark the moment Portugal's flag airline graduates from challenger to category fixture, benefiting both the country's tourism economy and fare-savvy corporates who choose TAP Air Portugal.