TAP Portugal expands flights from London Gatwick

TAP has confirmed an increase in the number of weekly flights operating from London Gatwick to Lisbon and Porto, as part of its winter operations timetable.

The timetable will come into operation on October 30th.

The increases bring TAP’s winter schedule to a total of 71 direct weekly flights to Portugal from London Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester.

From London Gatwick to Porto, TAP will introduce two additional flights, serving this route with a total of 14 weekly flights.

The London Gatwick Lisbon route will grow from seven to 12 weekly flights.

Additional changes in the winter schedule include increased services from Lisbon to Ponta Delgada, Azores, which will double from one daily flight to two.

There will also be an increase from Lisbon to Miami, to Boston and to New York, JFK.

TAP’s network in Africa is also set for growth, with further services operating from Lisbon, to destinations in Cabo Verde.

These destinations will increase their weekly flights as follows: Praia up to 11, Sal up to eight and São Vicente four.

Also in Africa, TAP will increase from seven to 10 weekly flights to Dakar, Senegal, and will introduce night flights both from Lisbon to Luanda and from Luanda to Lisbon every day for the first time. 

Passengers flying on round trips starting in the UK to America, Brazil or Africa, and vice versa, can benefit from the new Portugal Stopover programme.

Breaking Travel News

TAP A320 at Praia flight TP1534, bird strike

A TAP Portugal Airbus A320-200, registration CS-TNU performing flight TP-1534 from Praia (Cape Verde) to Lisbon (Portugal), departed Praia's runway 03 and was in the initial climb when the right hand engine (CFM56) ingested a bird. The crew stopped the climb at 5000 feet, shut the engine down and diverted to Sal (Cape Verde) for a safe landing on runway 01 about 30 minutes after departure.

The flight was cancelled.

The occurrence aircraft remained on the ground for 20 hours, then positioned to Lisbon (Portugal) and resumed service.

The Aviation Herald

TAP A320 over France, loss of communication leads to intercept

A TAP Portugal Airbus A320-200, registration CS-TMW performing flight TP-752 from Lisbon (Portugal) to Copenhagen (Denmark), was enroute at FL340 over France maintaining a heading of 050 degrees when French fighter aircraft were dispatched to intercept the aircraft due to loss of communication with the aircraft. Following the intercept the fighter aircraft positioned to the left of the A320 attempted to raise the crew on ATC and guard frequencies but failed to receive response for several minutes, subsequently the crew responded advising they suspected a radio failure, they were able to restore normal radio operation. The crew received the correct ATC frequency from the fighter aircraft and established contact with ATC while enroute about 60nm west of Paris (France) about 400nm into French Airspace. After ATC communication was restored the fighter aircraft returned to their base. The aircraft continued to Copenhagen for a safe landing about 100 minutes after communication was restored.

The Aviation Herald

Aegean Airlines and TAP Portugal join Airlines for Europe | ATWOnline

Greek carrier Aegean Airlines and Portuguese flag carrier TAP Portugal have become the latest airlines to join lobbygroup Airlines for Europe (A4E).

A4E launched in January 2016, with the support of founding members Air France-KLM, UK budget carrier easyJet, International Airlines Group, Lufthansa Group and Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair.

Since then it has attracted Finnair, UK leisure airline Jet2.com, Norwegian and Spanish budget carrier Volotea, with Aegean Airlines and TAP Portugal becoming the latest to join A4E in June.

This takes Brussels-based A4E’s representation to more than 500 million annual passengers and more than 60% of the continent’s passenger journeys.

A4E’s member airlines have a combined fleet of more than 2,500 aircraft and generate €97 billion ($108 billion) in annual turnover.

Aegean Airlines and TAP Portugal join Airlines for Europe | Associations content from ATWOnline

TAP A343 at Maputo on Jun 23rd 2016, engine shut down in flight

A TAP Portugal Airbus A340-300, registration CS-TOC performing flight TP-282 from Maputo (Mozambique) to Lisbon (Portugal) with 200 people on board, was climbing through FL320 out of Maputo when the crew stopped the climb and descended the aircraft to FL280 reporting they needed to shut an engine (CFM56) down. The aircraft returned to Maputo and landed safely back about 70 minutes after departure.

The airline confirmed a technical fault with one of the engines. The passengers were taken to hotels and are estimated to depart for Lisbon the following day.

Incident: TAP A343 at Maputo on Jun 23rd 2016, engine shut down in flight

TAP Air Portugal: Safety Database

Operator info
name: TAP Air Portugal
country:  Portugal
ICAO code: TAP
IATA code: TP
Founded: 1945

 TAP Air Portugal passed the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) benchmark for global safety management

TAP Air Portugal- Accident & incidents:

7 occurrences in the ASN safety database

Aviation Safety Network > ASN Aviation Safety Database > Operator index > Portugal > TAP Air Portugal

TAP Portugal boosts United States flights with two new routes | Breaking Travel News

TAP Portugal has increased its direct non-stop weekly flights to the United States as it welcomes the introduction of its new A330 aircraft to the fleet.

The Star Alliance-member will now offer daily non-stop direct flights from Lisbon to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and the Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts.

In addition to these two new destinations, TAP Portugal currently serves Miami and Newark and has increased its daily offering for summer this year.

Including the latest additions, TAP now offers 30 weekly flights between Portugal and the United States.

District sales manager, Edwin Latevi Lawson, added Tap also offered a twice-weekly direct flight between Porto and Newark, explaining the airline offered daily connections from Accra via Lisbon to a number of destinations around the world.

In Africa it has 13 destinations, among them Dakar, Algiers, Casablanka, Maputu and Sao Tome & Principe.

Lawson said TAP’s hub in Lisbon is a key European gateway at the crossroads of Africa, as well as North, Central and South America.

TAP currently operates about 2,500 weekly flights on a modern fleet of 61 Airbus aircraft and 17 aircraft operating in TAP Express livery.

TAP regional branded product, adding up to a 78 aircraft fleet with the two additional A330, thus increasing its fleet to 80 aircraft in the whole.

Lawson said TAP had been recognised Europe’s Leading Airline to Africa and Europe’s Leading Airline to South America by the World Travel Awards in 2014 and 2015.

The company was also awarded the titles of World’s Leading Airline to Africa in 2011 and 2012 and the World’s Leading Airline to South America in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

TAP Portugal boosts United States flights with two new routes | News | Breaking Travel News

TAP A332 at Lisbon on Jul 12th 2014, engine shut down in flight

A TAP Air Portugal Airbus A330-200, registration CS-TOO performing flight TP-85 from Lisbon (Portugal) to Sao Paulo Guarulhos,SP (Brazil) with 232 passengers and 11 crew, was climbing out of Lisbon's runway 03 when the crew declared Mayday and stopped the climb at 3000 feet reporting an engine (CF6) failure. The aircraft subsequently climbed to 5000 feet and entered a hold. The aircraft dumped fuel and returned to Lisbon for a safe landing on runway 03 about one hour after departure.

Lisbon police reported debris off the aircraft damaged a number of vehicles in Camarate just north of the runway end.

The airline confirmed an engine malfunction, however said it was not an engine explosion.

A replacement Airbus A330-200 registration CS-TOH departed Lisbon with a delay of about 12.5 hours and is estimated to reach Sao Paulo with a delay of 12:20 hours.

The airline's chairman reported on Jul 16th that a high pressure turbine's vane, located just at the exit of the combustion chamber and thus taking the highest temperatures, came loose, a problem that was introduced during manufacturing of the engine.

On Jun 15th 2016 Portugal's GPIAA released their final report concluding the probable cause of the incident was:

Low temperature hot corrosion (Hot Corrosion Type II) assisted cracking below the fixing platform of High Pressure Turbine stage one blades causing blade separation during the initial climb phase.

Contributing factors were:

- The difficulty for the engine manufacturer, for reasons related to the contracts with the various operators and/or availability, to schedule an earlier Quick Turn that resulted in ESN 811471 engine reaching a CSN above the desired (taking into account the record of previous events) for its removal;

- The engines’ exposure to corrosive elements such as dust, sand, pollution and salt (operation over and close to maritime environment) due to the intrinsic type of operation;

- The engines’ exposure to hot and dry environment due to the intrinsic type of operation;

- The high content of sulfur in aviation fuel at international level.

The GPIAA reported that the first officer (30, ATPL, 4,734 hours total, 112 hours on type) was pilot flying, immediately upon the engine failure the captain (61, ATPL, 8,202 hours total, 3,237 hours on type) took control of the aircraft.

The crew commenced a flex takeoff departure from Lisbon's runway 03 assuming an outside temperature of +39 degrees C and was climbing through 1300 feet AGL, the gear had just retracted, when a loud noise was heard in the cockpit and engine instruments showed an EGT of 1060 degrees C and N1 vibrations of 7.7 units for the right hand engine. The captain, taking control of the aircraft, immediately reduced the right hand thrust to idle and declared emergency advising he wanted to climb straight out to 3000 feet. The crew subsequently worked the related checklists identifying the engine parameters were consistent with damage, in order to secure the engine the crew discharged one fire bottle.

ATC requested the aircraft to climb to 5000 feet for a fuel dump, which the crew complied with. The aircraft dumped about 40 tons of fuel in 41 minutes. The aircraft subsequently positioned for an ILS approach to runway 03, descending through 1000 feet AGL the crew received indication of a nose wheel steering fault and advised ATC they might not be able to vacate the runway. The aircraft landed safely, the crew managed to vacate the runway and stopped on taxiway U4, the aircraft was subsequently towed to the apron.

The GPIAA wrote: "As a result of the contained engine failure, there was some damage to some windows of cars and of a house as the A330 was overflying the town of Camarate (Santiago neighbourhood)."

The GPIAA analysed:

Around the world, from June 2006 until July 2014, there were 13 GE’s CF6-80E1A engines High Pressure Turbine blade liberation events on A330-200/300 aircraft series.

In 9 events, which include the TAP085 one, the engines were equipped with blades P11 and in the remaining 4 were P17 blades.

Out of these 13 events, 11 occurred under the fixing platform at the High Pressure Turbine due to a Hot Corrosion Type II attack.

Most of these events took place whilst the aircraft were in flight (7 IFSD).

Present available techniques unable assessment of under the platform HPT stage one blade condition regarding hot corrosion attacks unless the blades are individually dismantled from the turbine and analysed.

Assessment of under the fixing platform blade condition is performed when the HPT stage one blades are removed at Shop Visit and/or by visual inspection of the blades before Shop Visit (as per SEB 72-0468 - implemented in May 2012), therefore engine manufacturers have a difficult task in scheduling recommended Shop Visits for the turbine stage one blades removal.

One of the most important parameters used to assess engine potential is the number of cycles performed. Consequently, the flight hours to flight cycle ratio is also of vital importance in the “attempt” to determine engine wear.

TAP and GE have been working together on understanding and reducing TAP’s fleet exposure to HPT stage one blade liberation events.

The assessment of the blades is continuous, as the engines go to Shop Visit, with the purpose of gaining further understanding of the hardware condition and, if deemed necessary, re-evaluate the threshold.

The flight hour to flight cycle ratio at TAP is 8.2, considered by GE to be above the area of concern when comparing TAP to the CF6-80E1 fleet as most of these events occurred on engines flying between 3 to 5 flight hours to cycle ratio.

Stage one HPT blade separation event of TAP085 was due to corrosion assisted cracking below the fixing platform, which is similar to other events occurred with CF6-80E1 engines.

At the time of the event, ESN 811471 had 4070 CSN (and 33340 hours TSN).

First stage High Pressure Turbine Blade Damage (Photo: GPIAA):



Fracture surface (Photo: GPIAA):


Incident: TAP A332 at Lisbon on Jul 12th 2014, engine shut down in flight

TAP A320 at Lisbon on May 21st 2016, rejected takeoff due to engine failure

A TAP Air Portugal Airbus A320-200, registration CS-TNP performing flight TP-1553 from Lisbon (Portugal) to Sao Vicente (Cabo Verde), was accelerating for takeoff from Lisbon's runway 03 when the crew rejected takeoff at high speed following a loud bang from the left hand side, loss of thrust on the left hand engine (CFM56) and associated yaw of the aircraft as well as an "ENG#1 FAIL" ECAM indication. The aircraft slowed safely and vacated the runway via HS onto taxiway L. While turning onto taxiway L emergency services reported seeing smoke and flames from the engine. Although no fire warning was active in the cockpit, the crew stopped the aircraft and performed the fire drill shutting the engine down and activating the engine's fire suppression. Subsequent assessment by emergency services indicated it was safe to tow the aircraft to the apron, where passengers disembarked through the right hand doors via stairs.

The French BEA reported the occurrence has been rated a serious incident by Portugal's GPIAA and is being investigated by the GPIAA. The BEA provided tail number CS-TPN in error (which is an Embraer ERJ-145).

Incident: TAP A320 at Lisbon on May 21st 2016, rejected takeoff due to engine failure

Portugal's TAP Begins Embraer E-190 Operations - Airwaysnews

TAP has become the first Embraer E190 operator in Portugal, after taking delivery of the first aircraft, to be operated by its regional branch Portugalia PGA, now renamed TAP Express.

The aircraft (CS-TPW /MSN 19000550), was originally delivered to Brazil’s TRIP Linhas Aéreas in 2012, and it was put into service last May 23 on the Lisbon – Nice route.

“For the complete renewal of its regional fleet as well as the improvement of the product and services offered, it is with great anticipation that TAP launches the new E190 into operation, which provides a new dimension of comfort and newness that will surprise our passengers,” said Fernando Pinto, TAP CEO.

The new 106-seat regional jetliners will replace Portugalia’s Fokker 100 jets, planes that were in service for over 25 years, and these, together with the ATR 72-600 fleet, also transferred from AZUL Linhas Aereas, are the cornerstone of a major renewal strategy for its regional fleet.

“With its entry into service, TAP Express now has the youngest fleet in the market it serves, thus positioning itself more competitively in relation to its counterparts.” Pinto said.

TAP has also embarked into a major revamp of its fleet. Back in 2012, the airline signed a firm order for 53 widebody and single-aisle aircraft including 14 A330-900neo, and 39 A320neo family aircraft (15 A320neos and 24 A321neos).

Portugal's TAP Begins Embraer E-190 Operations

TAP Portugal S16 European Service Suspensions | Airline Route

               

TAP Portugal at the start of summer 2016 season is suspending a number of European service, the airline has announced on Monday 18JAN16. From 27MAR16, the Star Alliance member will no longer operating the following routes:

Lisbon – Bucharest Previously scheduled 8 weekly in summer
Lisbon – Budapest Previously scheduled 8 weekly in summer
Lisbon – Gothenburg 4 weekly
Lisbon – Hanover 4 weekly
Lisbon – Zagreb 3 weekly. Service operates via Bologna, however TAP will continue to operate Lisbon – Bologna sector
Porto – Barcelona 20 weekly
Porto – Brussels 7 weekly
Porto – Rome 7 weekly

Reservations for these affected routes are no longer available for reservation, for travel on/after 27MAR16.

TAP Portugal S16 European Service Suspensions | Airline Route