TAP Portugal to replace Portugalia with TAP Express

TAP Portugal is to replace its PGA Portugalia Airlines subsidiary with a newly created brand - TAP Express - which will come into being later this March. In a statement, the Portuguese carrier said TAP Express would reinforce TAP's corporate identity across the board resulting in a more consistent brand and product.

Unlike Portugalia's ageing fleet of six Fokker 100s and eight ERJ-145s, TAP Express will operate eight ATR72s and nine EMB-190s sourced from sister carrier Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras .

According to ch-aviation schedule data, operations will commence on March 27 with the first EMB-190 flights from Lisbon to be: Nice, Funchal, Lyon St. Exupéry, Nantes, Bordeaux, Paris Orly, Faro and Madrid Barajas, followed by Marseilles, Toulouse Blagnac, and Barcelona El Prat on May 1 and Algier and Porto on June 1. Initial flights out of Porto, which will also launch on March 27, will include: Geneva, Funchal, and Madrid Barajas.
Initial ATR72-600 flights, which will be operated for TAP by White, will also commence on March 27 with the following flights from Lisbon: Porto (up to 6x daily), Seville, La Coruna, Asturias, Casablanca Int'l, Tangiers, and Valencia Manises. Bilbao will start from June 1 followed by Marrakech on July 1.
ch-aviation / FPP