Portugal’s flag-carrier TAP Air Portugal will operate transatlantic service from June 4 for the first time since late March when COVID-19 travel restrictions came into force.

The airline will start with flights between Lisbon (LIS) and New York Newark (EWR). It has plans to launch additional services to Boston (BOS), Miami (MIA) and Toronto (YYZ) from the Portuguese capital in July. Each of the planned routes will resume with 2X-weekly flights.

Prior to the suspension of its transatlantic services, TAP operated nine routes to North America. It connected LIS with MIA 9X-weekly; New York John F Kennedy (JFK) 6X-weekly; Washington Dulles (IAD) 5X-weekly; BOS, Chicago (ORD) and EWR 4X-weekly; and San Francisco (SFO) and YYZ 3X-weekly. TAP also operated a 5X-weekly Porto (OPO)-EWR service.

In addition to the four routes restarting, TAP is inaugurating three new routes this summer. Flying between Ponta Delgada (PDL) in the Azores and BOS will begin on July 1, and flights from PDL to YYZ will start a day later. TAP will also launch a 3X-weekly service connecting LIS and Montreal (YUL) on July 30.

In the coming months the Star Alliance member plans to gradually resume international flights to South America, Africa, and Europe. By July, it will have returned to 19% of its previous global network program—or 247 flights per week—including connecting service to 21 European destinations.

On the domestic front, Madeira (FNC) will also have twice daily connections from LIS and twice weekly from OPO. In the Azores, PDL will have daily service from LIS, while Terceira (TER) will have three flights per week. In the Algarve region, Faro (FAO) will also have twice daily service from LIS.

Photo credit: Nigel Howarth / Aviation Week