Tap Air Portugal in South Africa
On the 20th Jan 2011, TAP Air Portugal released the following statement: " TAP Portugal and LAM – Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (Mozambique Airlines) have formalised a Memorandum of Understanding stating that as from June 2011 they will combine all direct flights operated by both airlines from Portugal to Mozambique and South Africa.
Currently TAP operates three flights per week between Lisbon and Johannesburg with a stopover in Maputo plus a fourth direct flight to the Mozambican capital.
The decision by LAM to return to operating its own flights to Lisbon led to the redrafting of the commercial framework agreement between the two companies with a view to aligning the offer to the new reality and taking advantage of it to mutually assess the potential of introducing improvements in the services offered to customers by each airline.
Therefore as early as this summer four direct flights between Lisbon and Maputo will operate as code-share flights, two on TAP and two on LAM operated aircraft.
In the same context and from this date onwards, LAM will provide connections between Maputo and Johannesburg on its own aircraft in a schedule connecting with the Lisbon arrivals and departures. These flights will also carry the TAP code enabling passenger and baggage check-in to the final destination, which in turn simplifies pricing tariffs. In the near future the same operating model is being planned for Cape Town.
TAP is therefore offering the resident Portuguese community in that country a more globally appropriate product than is currently on offer, despite not maintaining the connection to Johannesburg on its own aircraft. In fact the company is not only maintaining the service already available for flights already landing in Maputo, it is also increasing the weekly flight frequency to that destination and is now also considering the prospect of expanding the operation to new destinations in South Africa.
In this context conversations are ongoing with South African Airways, a Star Alliance partner company of TAP, with a view to expanding the range of the respective cooperation and diversifying the route options between Portugal and South Africa.
Considering the importance of the Portuguese community originating from Madeira in South Africa, TAP is deploying efforts to possibly operate extra flights to and from Johannesburg at specific times of year and depending on additional demand. "
TAP Air Portugual goes viral
TAP Air Portugal had released a number of Youtube videos, none of which had been viewed more than 500 times. Then they released this one in December 2009, and within 4 days it had been viewed more than 210,000 times.