Caracas Calling: TAP Air Portugal To Resume Venezuela Link Using Airbus A330neos

Despite operating large numbers of restricted flights to Caracas during the pandemic (using the '9' flight prefix), it'll return on a regularly scheduled basis from June.

Thanks to vast numbers of people of Portuguese heritage in Venezuela, TAP has served Caracas for decades, with the connection to Lisbon also an important way of reaching wider Europe.

What's happening?

After one-offs on April 21st, May 5th, and May 6th, the 4,042-mile (6,505km) link between Lisbon and Caracas will again be connected properly from June 21st.

TAP will run two flights a week on Tuesdays and Saturdays through the rest of summer, with services scheduled and bookable until October 29th, the last day of the aviation summer season. The schedule is as follows, with all times local:

Lisbon to Caracas: TP173, 12:10-15:50
Caracas to Lisbon: TP174, 18:20-07:25+1

Flights will be operated by the A330-900. TAP was the launch customer of the type and now has 19 examples. They have 286 seats: 34 in business, 96 in premium economy, and 168 in economy. The A330neo is now TAP's primary widebody.

This is Caracas' European route network for the rest of 2022. The main route is, of course, Madrid (Iberia, Air Europa, Plus Ultra), with Lisbon coming. Also served are Tenerife North (Plus Ultra) and Istanbul (Turkish Airlines; via Havana inbound, non-stop outbound). Image: GCMap.

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TAP to Caracas

In 2019, TAP had 53,758 round-trip seats available for sale to/from Caracas. Booking data suggests it carried approximately 49,555 passengers for a seat load factor of about 92%. Caracas-Lisbon had only a small number of passengers, with around 90% transiting Portugal's capital.

According to booking data, Caracas via Lisbon to Funchal had more passengers than anywhere else (see below). It was followed by Porto, Rome Fiumicino, Barcelona, Madrid, London Heathrow, Paris Orly, Amsterdam, Milan Malpensa, and Frankfurt.

The significance of Funchal, Maderia, is not surprising. It has had a Venezuelan population for years, but it became a refuge for those of Portuguese ancestry during Venezuela's economic and social crisis.

TAP routed Lisbon-Funchal-Caracas for many years, variously using A310-300s and A330-200s. Now passengers transit in Lisbon. (Venezuela's defunct Santa Bárbara Airlines, latterly SBA Airlines, also served Funchal.)

TAP Caracas — https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/tp9533

TAP has had regular service to Caracas during the pandemic. However, they aren't scheduled flights and aren't bookable in the normal way. Regular service will resume in June. Image: Flightradar24.com.

11 daily departures to South America

In mid-July, TAP's South American network is as follows. It'll have 75 non-stop departures, or nearly 11-daily. Flights are down by 14% versus the same week in 2019, mainly thanks to various lower-than-previous frequencies rather than anything dramatic.