TAP Air Portugal has announced a new route for 2019 to San Francisco (SFO). This comes soon after route announcements from the carrier added Chicago and Washington to their US destinations.
TAP Air Portugal recently took delivery of the world’s first Airbus A330-900, with 21 of the wide body jets being delivered over the next 18 months. As a result, their fleet is looking more competent than ever, with this latest route announcement coming hot on the heels of their new routes from Chicago and Washington just last week.
The new TAP Air Portugal San Francisco flights
The new routes will begin in June 2019 and will run five times per week on a round trip basis. The flights will operate on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
The two flights on this route will be:
- TP236 – San Francisco (SFO) to Lisbon (LIS), departing 4:10pm, arriving 11:25am (+1 day)
- TP237 – Lisbon (LIS) to San Francisco (SFO), departing 10:00am, arriving 2:40pm
Paid fares can already be booked up for the new route, with economy coming in at just shy of $800 for the round trip.
For a business class flight, it’s just over $3,000. Award offers are not up on the search yet, but it will be worth checking in a week or two to see if these have been made available.
San Francisco is seeing massive growth in routes being offered. This new route from TAP follows closely behind the recent announcement from United that they will fly to Toronto, Melbourne and New Delhi from the West Coast hub.
Earlier in the year, Air Italy announced new routes from Rome to both LAX and SFO. Norwegian have also planned routes from London to San Francisco commencing in 2019.
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Other new routes from TAP
As well as the SFO announcement, last week TAP Air Portugal enlightened us on two other new routes which will be launched in the US next year. Both operating to and from their hub in Lisbon, these will connect with Washington Dulles (IAD) and Chicago (ORD).
They will operate five flights per week to Chicago, starting from June 1st, 2019. These will run on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The two flights are:
- Chicago (ORD) to Lisbon (LIS), departing 6:05pm, arriving at 7:50am (+1 day)
- Lisbon (LIS) to Chicago (ORD), departing at 1:05pm, arriving at 4:05pm
The Washington route will operate five times a week also, starting from 16th June 2019. These will run Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The two flights are:
- Washington (IAD) to Lisbon (LIS), departing 10:40pm, arriving at 10:50am (+1 day)
- Lisbon (LIS) to Washington (IAD), departing at 4:30pm, arriving 7:40pm
Fares on both these routes start at $569 for the round trip. Business class will see you comfortable in lie flat seats, and costs from $2,951 for the round trip.
TAP Air already run routes to and from New York (JFK), Bosting (BOS), Miami (MIA) and Newark (EWR). The airline has been expanding its US operations since David Needleman, founder of JetBlue, took an ownership stake in 2015.
With more than 70 new planes on the way, it’s clear that Needleman is counting on expanding the airline’s presence in the US significantly. In the past, he has said TAP could support as many as 10 US routes in the near future.
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Fancy a stopover?
TAP Air Portugal offer through fares from the US via Lisbon and onto 73 other European and African destinations. From Abidjan and Accra to Manchester or Moscow, the possibilities for onward travel are endless.
In some cases, the flights to certain cities beyond Lisbon are actually cheaper than flights to Lisbon only, due to increased competition on onward routes. Not that we condone skiplagging, even if the Spanish think it’s OK.
TAP offer a nice stopover program too, offering a stay in Portugal of up to five nights in either Lisbon or Porto. The airline has partnered with hotels and tour operators to offer passengers special rates and discounts.