TAP’s new direct connections to Brussels, Lyon and Munich are now on sale, booting flights to the Belgian capital on 1 July and to French and German cities on 1 September.
In a statement, the Portuguese airline says that flights to Brussels will have two daily frequencies, with departures from Porto at 07:00 and 17:35 and arriving in the Belgian capital at 10:30 and 21:05, respectively.
Flights to Lyon will also be daily, with two schedules (leaving the Port at 06:30 and 18:30 and arriving in the French city at 09:35 and 21:35), while for Munich the TAP operation starts with a daily flight, departing from Porto at 12:15 and arriving in Germany at 15:55.
According to the company, this increase in connections from Porto Airport brings to 19 the number of direct routes operated by TAP from Porto to Europe, the US and Brazil, for a total of 288 weekly frequencies.
The new routes that TAP opens this year from Porto will result in a 34% increase in direct flights from that city to Europe compared to 2018, the year in which the company had already increased the number of flights, with the start of the operation to Barcelona, London (London City Airport), Milan and Ponta Delgada.
This reinforcement comes after a period of reduction of TAP’s operation at Sá Carneiro airport, wherein 2016 the company suppressed the routes to Barcelona, Milan, Rome and Brussels for being “deficit” in a decision criticized in Porto, in particular by the president of the camera, Rui Moreira.
According to the airline, this investment in Porto “is also possible thanks to the reinforcement of aircraft“, as TAP will receive 37 new aircraft by the end of this year and 71 to 2025.
“The new fleet allows the company to fly to new destinations and boost frequencies,” he said, pointing to San Francisco, Washington and Chicago as the new flights already on sale in North America and the new routes already announced for this year bound for Naples, Tenerife, Tel Aviv, Dublin and Basel.
