Advice on TAP Airp Portugal
Thread Starter
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 10
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From: Denmark
Advice on TAP Airp Portugal
Over the next 6 months I will be flying Copenhagen/Stockholm/Copenhagen 46 times with TAP Air Portugal. Does anybody out there have any experience with this airline? If so, could you please share your experience with me. 
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 305
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From: Manchester, UK
Hi.
I flew with TAP last summer Madrid-Lisbon-Madrid. I have to say, i was very impressed by the airline. The food was much more and of a better quality than i expected on a 1 hour flight. The airbus A-319s are really quite new, and have very comfortable leather seats. The cabin is very spacious too. Only problem i found was that as i was sitting close to the rear galley, we encountered some turbulance on takeoff, and the fittings behind me creaked an AWFUL lot. It was really quite annoying, although it only lasted a few minutes. If you can, it would probably be best to sit closer to the middle of the plane where i imagine it will be a bit quieter.
Hope this helps.
Alex
I flew with TAP last summer Madrid-Lisbon-Madrid. I have to say, i was very impressed by the airline. The food was much more and of a better quality than i expected on a 1 hour flight. The airbus A-319s are really quite new, and have very comfortable leather seats. The cabin is very spacious too. Only problem i found was that as i was sitting close to the rear galley, we encountered some turbulance on takeoff, and the fittings behind me creaked an AWFUL lot. It was really quite annoying, although it only lasted a few minutes. If you can, it would probably be best to sit closer to the middle of the plane where i imagine it will be a bit quieter.
Hope this helps.
Alex
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 217
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From: Pattaya, Thailand
Flew TAP Paris-Lisbon and vice versa in March, excellent on both legs. 319 on the way back..... loads a leg room on the window emergency exits. Food was OK, staff excellent especially at quietening small children of which there were loads bawling their heads off on the way to Lisbon. Free newspaper/magazine of your choice after ticketing but before boarding seemed an excellent idea.
Joined: Jan 2001
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From: Location, Location
Safety as criterion for airline choice
nooluv, while I'm not knocking TAP's safety - they have not got the best record even in Europe. Both Aer Lingus and Finnair are fatality free since 1970 and they both have significantly more flights than TAP (source AirSafe.com).
As a (lapsed) actuary, I can tell you that it's difficult to produce a meaningful comparison of airline safety statistics. Because fatalities are (thankfully) an extremely rare event, you have to go back a long way to achieve anything more than a statement of who has had the most recent/worst accident (Swiss make a poor showing on AirSafe's league table, but I wouldn't claim this makes them 'unsafe'). On the other hand, who cares which was the 'safest' airline in 1970? Most will have radically changed their fleet, route structure and personnel since then.
The only thing the above league table tells us with any degree of confidence is that Turkish have a substantially worse record than any other major 'European' carrier - but then they operate many flights in a different environment where (I guess) safety and ATC standards are not as rigorous as Western Europe. And in many cases the only alternative to a THY flight may be on a carrier with a worse record still!
As a (lapsed) actuary, I can tell you that it's difficult to produce a meaningful comparison of airline safety statistics. Because fatalities are (thankfully) an extremely rare event, you have to go back a long way to achieve anything more than a statement of who has had the most recent/worst accident (Swiss make a poor showing on AirSafe's league table, but I wouldn't claim this makes them 'unsafe'). On the other hand, who cares which was the 'safest' airline in 1970? Most will have radically changed their fleet, route structure and personnel since then.
The only thing the above league table tells us with any degree of confidence is that Turkish have a substantially worse record than any other major 'European' carrier - but then they operate many flights in a different environment where (I guess) safety and ATC standards are not as rigorous as Western Europe. And in many cases the only alternative to a THY flight may be on a carrier with a worse record still!
Thread Starter
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 10
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From: Denmark
Just a small follow-up.
Now completed 52 flights with TAP and enjoyed every one of them. Brand new looking Airbusses (319) with friendly crew and plenty of space. Initially we were served sandwiches and refreshments but the last 4 months it was only refreshments. Always had cold portuguese beer onboard (although you had to press them sometimes to serve it).
Good experience
Now completed 52 flights with TAP and enjoyed every one of them. Brand new looking Airbusses (319) with friendly crew and plenty of space. Initially we were served sandwiches and refreshments but the last 4 months it was only refreshments. Always had cold portuguese beer onboard (although you had to press them sometimes to serve it).
Good experience
PPRuNe Co-Pilot
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 931
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From: The Sky
Hello,
Have travelled quite alot with TAP Air Portugal, never had any problems with them, the food i have to admit was yummiiii
great, cabin crew was brilliant on most of the flights, as for the fleet indeed it is modern.
They will also be introducing 2 more A320 to the fleet and will be adding 3 more routes to their network, prague, venice and another one which i forgot
And as for Safety, they only had 1 accident with fatalities back in 1976 ( i think ) when a B727 tried to land twice ( bad weather ) and overshoot the very small runway, recently Funchal had a complete renovated airport, with a new runway ( 2740m rwy aprox ), new terminal for passengers and cargo and some other facilities, but that Funchal approach wow brilliant.
Have travelled quite alot with TAP Air Portugal, never had any problems with them, the food i have to admit was yummiiii
great, cabin crew was brilliant on most of the flights, as for the fleet indeed it is modern. They will also be introducing 2 more A320 to the fleet and will be adding 3 more routes to their network, prague, venice and another one which i forgot
And as for Safety, they only had 1 accident with fatalities back in 1976 ( i think ) when a B727 tried to land twice ( bad weather ) and overshoot the very small runway, recently Funchal had a complete renovated airport, with a new runway ( 2740m rwy aprox ), new terminal for passengers and cargo and some other facilities, but that Funchal approach wow
brilliant.
