Airlift of TAP exceeds 100,000 passengers in two months – Express

Operated by TAP Express (former PGA), the airlift call, launched on 27 March, works with time matches the time and two counters to check in exclusive. “The important thing is to get to the airport knowing that very soon is out another plane. The idea is to enter into effective competition with the train,” said Fernando Pinto, chief executive of the company two months ago.

from March 27 until the beginning of this week, according to data passed to Express by the company, TAP has carried 101,211 passengers between Lisbon and Porto, which represents an increase of 82% compared to 55,725 transported in the same period last year.

the average occupancy rate is around 65%, which TAP considers “good for little more than a month of service.” The company’s goal is to grow especially in the so-called point to point, that is the pure flights between the two cities. So with the airlift, “transport plane already competes with other modes of transport both in price and total duration of the trip.”

With an offer of 36 daily flights (18 each way) , which makes a total of 252 weekly flights (previously 114), the operation is done by four ATR72 aircraft (70 seats each) – one of which backup – and in time with increased demand, Airbus A320 family. The most popular periods, said the company, take place between 7 am and 10 am and between 17h and 22h30 (Lisbon / Porto) and between 6:30 AM and 10:30 and between 16:30 and 19h30h (Porto / Lisbon).

in addition to price, which varies between 39 and 99 euros per route, another “determining factor for the increasing demand is flexibility to not penalize the passenger if it is late or arrive early at the airport,” he says the Express official source of the company.

“it created a route itself at airports to facilitate boarding and disembarking providing time savings, indispensable in a short route,” explains the same source. “The improvement is especially noticeable in Lisbon more difficult airport to transit, where check-in is at the entrance to the matches, with the premium area with access to the same area to a proper control of X-ray, very close doors boarding, “he adds.

Although bookings for this route to be made” very top of the day, the existing amount until the end of the year is very significant, standing at growth already acquired that vary . over the months between 28 and 65%, “says

Remember that this reinforcement operation between Lisbon and Porto coincided with the end of four routes to European destinations, considered unprofitable by the company: Barcelona, Brussels, Milan and Rome from Porto. Lisbon also canceled “loss-making routes.”: Zagreb, Budapest, Gothenburg, Hanover and Bucharest

The end of the route from the Port took the Mayor of Porto Rui Moreira to criticize the strategy of TAP and to admit “appeal to boycott the region” to the carrier, accusing her of having an ongoing strategy to “destroy the airport Francisco Sá Carneiro” in Porto, and building in Lisbon, “a new airport and a new bridge” .

Between October 2014 and October 2015, as reported the Express in February, TAP lost more than eight million with the routes in Port however suspended.

Despite the growth registered in the airlift in the first four months of this year, TAP recorded a passenger decline at the Port of 6.6% (under 33,400) to 472,726, reducing its share of market by 4.3 percentage points to 18.7%, according to data from the Francisco Sa Carneiro Airport quoted by PressTUR. The same data show that two out of every three passengers traveling to / from the Port used low cost company, which gained 4.2 points to market TAP Portugal and SATA, below 20%.