Lisbon based TAP Portugal is evaluating the possibility of inaugurating new services from Lisbon to Beijing and Shanghai as well as connecting its secondary hub in Porto with Shanghai. Star Alliance member TAP currently operates over 2000 weekly flights to over 60 destinations with 41% of its flights from Lisbon.
TAP operates a number of long haul services to Africa and North and South America, however it currently has no long haul services to Asia. Its long haul fleet consists of twelve A330-200 aircraft, as well as four A340-300 widebodies, the carrier also has twelve A350-800 on order.
IATA BSP data shows that between May 09-10, over 5.7 million O+D passengers flew from Europe to China with the leading ten carriers listed below;
|
Carrier |
Two Way Passengers |
Market Share |
|
Air China |
1,193,278 |
21% |
|
Lufthansa |
812,070 |
14% |
|
Air France |
503,103 |
9% |
|
KLM |
470,939 |
8% |
|
China Eastern |
278,797 |
5% |
|
Hainan Airlines |
268,709 |
5% |
|
Aeroflot |
265,240 |
5% |
|
Finnair |
265,048 |
5% |
|
Emirates |
248,596 |
4% |
|
China Southern |
223,445 |
4% |
|
Others |
1,247,289 |
20% |
|
Total |
5,776,524 |
100% |
Source IATA BSP data (Airport IS) May 2009-2010
From Europe to China, of the total O+D market, only 2.8 million passengers flew on non-stop services, meaning that over 50% of this market flew via a connecting point illustrating the opportunity for new non-stop service.
IATA BSP data shows that during the same time period over 216,000 O+D passengers flew from Portugal to Asia with fellow Star member Lufthansa carrying 29% of this traffic, however KLM and Air France (Skyteam) carried 24% and Oneworld member BA carried 12% with Qatar Airways carrying 11%.
O+D numbers from Portugal to China for May 2009-2010 show that over 35,000 passengers flew between the two countries with 36% flying with Lufthansa. However TAP will leverage its Star Alliance membership on these new direct services hoping to feed the large European to China market through its Lisbon hub. With Beijing a strong Star Alliance hub there will be plenty of onward feed in Beijing for Star Alliance passengers.
TAP will also seek to connect traffic from Latin America through Lisbon and onto China, a market that will be better connected from Lisbon than any other Star Alliance hub in Europe. Flightbase data illustrates that there is currently no non-stop service from Latin America to China although over 216,000 O+D passengers flew from Latin America to China between May 2009-10.
With the O+D numbers between Lisbon and the Beijing and Shanghai markets being relatively low the new route will depend heavily on this connecting traffic.
Trade continues to grow between China and Portugal, and interestingly, Portugal is now China's ninth largest trading partner. There are historic links between the two countries with Macau being a Portuguese and infact the first and last Portuguese colony in China.
Portugal participated in the Shanghai Expo this year to try and promote commerce and economic development between the two countries. There will therefore be strong political support for a valuable trade link between the two countries.
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