TAP: Shuttle: new quality service between Porto and Lisbon

TAP Express - the national flag carrier's new brand replacing PGA - Portugália Airlines - launches today and, as a company, is to continue within the TAP Group using the same name. This means its customers will use the same aircraft with the TAP brand.

At the same time, marking the start of the IATA summer season, when news and alterations for the coming six months are normally announced, TAP is launching the Shuttle between Porto and Lisbon, offering a quality service just like those in other countries in which the major cities are connected, such as Madrid and Barcelona, Rome and Milan, Innsbruck and Vienna, Zurich and Geneva, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, among others.

The Shuttle flies 18 times a day. Between Porto and Lisbon, there are flights from 5.30am to 9.30pm while from Lisbon to Porto there are flights from 6am to 10.25pm, ensuring complete interconnection with the entire TAP network, ending the long waits between flights.

Shuttle flights generally use the four ATR 72s with 70 very comfortable seats, with a flight time that is practically the same as that of the aircraft currently flying the route. Airbus A320s, and occasionally the new Embraer 190s, will be used during peak times.

TAP regional operations are going to have a fleet of 17 aircraft, including eight ATR 72s - four of which are new, the other four less than a year old - operated by White, and nine Embraer 190s, which are all practically new, operated by PGA. Both fleets will fly the TAP Express livery with the new logos created to better identify these services with TAP. Greater use is to be made of White, which before operated two ATRs and which will now operate eight, justified by its experience and know-how with this aircraft, which the industry considers to be the best for this type of operation.

The operations that begin today involve two of the new ATR 72s, with the remainder gradually entering service over the coming weeks as planned.

Until now, TAP has used ATR 42s, Embraer 145s and Fokkers on its regional services. Shortly the fleet will be entirely made up of new ATR 72s and Embraer 190s, and the older Fokkers and Embraers are to be retired, greatly improving the quality of service and significantly reducing operating costs.

TAP Express is a commercial brand only. TAP will continue to be the transporter and responsible for marketing the product and for the national and international bodies while PGA and White will be the operators. PGA will continue to exist as a company within the TAP Group, as it has been since 2007.

In the IATA season that begins today until the end of October, TAP is going to operate a total of 13,563 flights in and out of Porto, compared to 13,321 in the same period last year.