New Route of the Day (28 May 2023): TAP Portugal between Porto and Luanda

TAP Portugal on Sunday 28 May began a new long-haul service between Porto and Luanda. The 5,980-kilometre route will be maintained 2-weekly on Wednesdays and Sundays, with the 298-seat A330-900. The Angolan capital becomes TAP’s fourth long-haul service from Porto, complementing New York EWR, Rio de Janeiro GIG and Sao Paulo GRU. It faces no competition between the two airports.

Flight TP291 departs Porto at 13:30 local time, arriving in Luanda at 21:35 local time. The inbound service, operating as flight TP292, takes off from the Angolan capital at 23.20 local time, touching down back in Portugal at 07:45 local time the following morning.

TAP almost doubles international Porto flights

During S23, TAP Portugal has almost doubled the number of international flights from Porto. In addition to the new Luanda service, it has increased frequencies to New York EWR from 2-weekly to daily. Furthermore, it maintains 3-weekly flights to Sao Paolo GRU and a 2-weekly rotation to Rio de Janeiro GIG.

The Star Alliance member’s European network out of Porto has also grown, with additional frequencies introduced on services to Geneva and Zurich. This summer, the airline is exclusively operating A320 aircraft on flights to London LGW, Paris ORY, Luxembourg and Funchal, thus increasing capacity by 10%. Furthermore, TAP Portugal is no longer deploying turboprop aircraft on its domestic Porto – Lisbon shuttle, utilising instead only jet-engine aircraft.

Porto adds 21 new routes in S23

Porto is anticipating a record year after handling over 12 million passengers in 2022. The airport is growing its network by an additional 21 routes this summer, which primarily involve European LCCs. The greatest number of new routes are being rolled out by Ryanair with the addition of seven destinations. It is followed by easyJet, Norwegian, PLAY, airBaltic, SAS, Eurowings, Austrian and Volotea.

Situated in Portugal’s north, Porto is the country’s second largest city with approximately 1.7 million residents. It boasts the nation’s second busiest airport behind Lisbon. Porto serves as the gateway to Portugal’s leisure traffic. Furthermore, the area has the biggest flow of emigration, which makes VFR tourism an important factor for Porto Airport. As the Spanish region of Galicia is nearby, just 120-kilometres by car, 10% of passengers travelling through Porto Airport are estimated to be of Galician origin.