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Transportes Aéreos Portugueses — also called TAP Air Portugal, Air Portugal or simply TAP — is the Portuguese national airline.
History
The airline was founded as a public service on March 14 1945 and began commercial service on September 19 1946, flying from Lisbon to Madrid. On December 31 of this year, it began its Linha Aérea Imperial, a twelve-stop service, including Luanda, Angola and Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), Mozambique. 1947 saw the inauguration of its domestic service from Lisbon to Porto. Service to São Tomé and London began in 1949.
In 1953, the airline became a private company and began service to Tangier and Casablanca.
The one millionth passenger flew on TAP on June 19 1964, 18 years after the airline began operations. In 1969 service to New York via the island of Santa Maria in the Azores began. Boston was added to the New York service the following year.
In 1975, TAP was nationalized, becoming a public corporation (Empresa Pública).
In 1989, service to Newark, New Jersey was introduced.
In 1991, service to Berlin was established. In this year, TAP became a publicly-traded company (Sociedade Anónima). In 1993, TAP began flying to Tel Aviv. In 1994, TAP began a code sharing arrangement with Delta Airlines for north Atlantic service. 1996 saw the introduction of service to Boston via Terceira Island in the Azores, the inauguration of service to Macau and the launch of TAP's Web site. In 1997, service began to Punta Cana and Bangkok.
NOTE: the above history is not exhaustive and not all destinations and aircraft have been included. Unless otherwise indicated, destinations can be assumed to be served from Lisbon.
Destinations
See full article: TAP Air Portugal destinations
External link
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