Boston has been experiencing some of the most impressive international growth of any US airport, as over the past few years they've picked up several new flights to Asia (on Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Hainan, and Japan Airlines), and even more new flights to Europe. Well, it looks like we can now add yet another airline…
Continue reading: TAP Portugal’s New Flights To Boston & New York
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Hey Lucky does this count as one *A award?
SK LYR-OSL-ARN, ET (B77L or B787) ARN-VIE, Air China A330 VIE-BCN, TP BCN-LIS-JFK
I am surprised this did not happen sooner. There is a large population of Portuguese here in MASS.
Now they have to do something about Terminal E. Air side is about to burst at the seams.
I've flown TAP a few times, between Portugal and Brazil. Business class seats, as you say, are angled, very angled, and not really flat. To add to the injury, most of the fleet does not even have video on demand (there is video, but not on demand). So, I avoid TAP, except for day flights, in which the angled seats are not as inconvenient.
On the other hand, I read somewhere that TAP is expected to receive a couple of Azul's A330s, which have brand new interiors, with lay-flat seats on a 1-2-1 config. I don't recall details, though.
TAP from JFK and BOS is also very cool if pax are interested in traveling to some exotic African locations including much of West Africa and Portuguese southern africa (Mozambique and Angola, but good luck with the visa situations). It will be cool to have a one-stop way to get to Cape Verde, Sao Tome and some of the other more exotic African locales that were once Portuguese. Nowadays, it seems like SN has much of the US-Africa markets, because through my observations at JFK and IAD, much of SN's customers from the US continue to Africa, and SN caters to the Africa to USA customer base by timing the flights as such
What's the target market for the Miami flight? There isn't a large Portuguese community in South Florida, why was this one of their only US destinations?
TAP served Boston for years in the 1980's and 1990's. Those flights were operated using L1011. The title should be TAP returns to Boston and JFK.
This is happening because Brazil is imploding and TAP was running a lot of frequencies to Brazil. It now has a lot of airframes to redeploy from the trash yields Brazil is generating (GRU - MCO/MIA is $380 r/t pretty much this entire year - shows you how much cash big market leaders like AA/LATAM must be losing there).
TAP is nothing special. I really don't think the EWR/BOS/JFK-LIS flights are worth ponying up for J. Portugal is an amazing country. Enjoy it!
Kind of disappointed TAP didn't add ORD. Seems like a logical addition considering the potential for connecting flights. Any idea if they are considering adding ORD in the near future?
We flew TAP from Newark to Lisbon in coach because we really wanted a nonstop.
Even with such a short flight, it was pretty miserable and I wouldn't do it again. Fortunately, we had booked out hotel for the night we were flying so we could be guaranteed to check in at 7 and get a long nap. We did love Lisbon and southern Portugal for a winter school break and would highly recommend it.
I believe these will be operated by the 2 A330 TAP is getting from Azul. If so these offer full flat staggered seats in business class in 1-2-1.
I think you mean Azores Airlines ( https://booking.azoresairlines.pt/rzoweb/app/booking?lang=en) and with some TAP in the mix?
Because Sata Internacional is gone. Now it's Azores Airlines.
Went to check it and it stars around 275€ oneway ticket.
They're bringing two new A330s into service and beginning a retrofit of the existing fleet with Stelia Solstys lie flat seats:
http://www.tapportugal.com/Info/en/about-tap/tap-group/the-new-tap?
@Lucky - did you ever publish your full trip report on TAP? Didn't you fly them to Lisbon last year? Anxious to read about that in full.
I'll be heading to Lisbon (from New York) one week before this flight debuts... the flight time out of EWR is really inconvenient so this flight time would've been perfect... oh well.
In response to an earlier comment, TP will arrive at Terminal E in Boston but depart from jetBlue's Terminal C (just like EK) to facilitate connections and help keep Terminal E from busting at the seams until the E expansion happens.
As a BOS based flyer, I continue to be thrilled with Massports expansion efforts at Logan. It is fantastic all the new service it is bringing us. I hope all the economics work out for these flights and all the rest.
Great news, my Parents use an unreliable airline called SATA to get from Boston to Portugal, and they make the trip twice a year. If the price is right, they may swich to TAP.
TAP brings new A 330-200 aricrafts to these routes. In business, they will use full flat seats in 1-2-1 configuration. They will also have economy plus with 34 seat pitch and economy with 31. The other long haul planes will be retrofitted in 2017. TAP is nothing amazing but it is probably the only european airline offering a true free food service onboard in its european routes along with Lufthansa and Swiss and is constantly ranked among the safest European companies to fly along with KLM and Finnair. And for transatlantic service they are just much better than any US carrier service wise. The Newark service will also operate daily and Miami will have 7 frequencies during summer time as well, reducing to 5 weekly during low season.
United is also starting WAS-LIS which is pretty cool although it looks like this flight will be only during the holidays period. TAP has ordered 12 new A330-200 Neo and several A321 which they plan on using on several of their transatlantic routes, increasing the number of US cities they will fly to 10 in the next 2-3 years.
The truth is TAP Portugal service is MUCH BETTER than the service of any other US airline especially on transatlantic flights. The new cabin improvements may place TAP at par with other major European airlines.