Star Alliance member TAP Portugal this week announced six new routes from its Lisbon hub, from where it currently operates over 800 weekly flights to over 60 destinations. The carrier does operate long-haul services, however the six new routes are within Europe and will bolster its short-haul network. These routes are Manchester, Vienna, Dusseldorf, Athens, Bordeaux and Dubrovnik.
The routes will commence in Summer 2011 and are largely aimed at attracting the leisure markets into Portugal.
It will commence a five-times weekly service to Manchester which will increase to six-times weekly, a route that currently has no year round scheduled service. IATA BSP data shows that over 24,000 O+D passengers flew the route between September 2009 and September 2010 59% with bmibaby. The route was previously served by Portuglia.
TAP will introduce a four-times weekly service to Vienna, also a route not currently served, however over 51,000 O+D passengers travelled between the city pairs between September 2009-September 2010 with the majority of passengers travelling with Lufthansa via their Munich and Frankfurt hubs. The third route announced will be Athens, a route that will be operated on a thrice-weekly basis with nearly 40,000 O+D passengers travelling during the same time period with 28% of passengers travelling via Madrid with Iberia.
TAP also has a focus on the German market with its new routes with a five-times weekly service to Dusseldorf a route which is served by Lufthansa with regional equipment on a four-times weekly basis with CRJ900 aircraft.
Thinner routes have also been announced in the shape of Bordeaux, which is operated by Air France on a daily basis with regional aircraft. Over 17,000 O+D passengers have flown the route between September 2009-September 2010, with Air France currently having an 82% share of the market.
Finally, TAP will add a weekly flight to the coastal Croatian market of Dubrovnik, a market where TAP is already the dominant carrier in terms of market share.
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