Throwback: TAP's Short-Lived Airbus A330-300 Fleet

TAP Air Portugal

IATA/ICAO Code:

TP/TAP

Airline Type:

Full Service Carrier

Hub(s):

Lisbon Airport

Year Founded:

1945

Alliance:

Star Alliance

CEO:

Luís Rodrigues

Country:

Portugal
Airbus

Stock Code:

AIR

Date Founded:

1970-12-18

CEO:

Guillaume Faury

Headquarters Location:

Toulouse, France

Key Product Lines:

Airbus A220, Airbus A320, Airbus A330, Airbus A340, Airbus A350, Airbus A380

Business Type:

Planemaker

The Airbus A330 series is a key part of TAP Air Portugal's long-haul operations. Although the Portuguese flag carrier is increasingly deploying narrowbodies on transatlantic sectors, it is also strongly committed to the next-generation A330neo. In terms of older A330s, it still flies the -200, and used to operate the -300. But what happened to the latter of these twin-aisle designs?

Former Singapore Airlines planes

According to data from ch-aviation.com, TAP Air Portugal has flown four A330-300s in recent years. This version of the European manufacturer's twin-engine widebody was the family's initial variant, and it is 63.67 meters long. Airbus later introduced the shorter A330-200 version in 1998, which measures 58.82 meters in length.

All four of the Lisbon-based Star Alliance member's A330-300s joined the airline in 2017 from Singapore Airlines. The first to arrive was CS-TOU, which joined the Portuguese flag carrier on April 10th that year. Just over a month later, May 22nd saw CS-TOV come onboard. The third to join TAP was CS-TOW, on July 27th.

It was followed by the fourth and final example, CS-TOX, on August 23rd. The aircraft were all around eight years old at the time, having entered service in 2009. Unfortunately, they would soon leave Portugal's national airline.

TAP painted one of its A330-300s, CS-TOV, in a special retro livery. Photo: Florian Klebl via Flickr

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Two years at TAP

Despite being fairly young aircraft, TAPs A330-300s didn't have a long-term future. This is because, by the late-2010s, it had begun modernizing its widebody fleet through the implementation of the new A330neo. As such, they left the fleet two years later, in 2019. Simple Flying reported in April that year that TAP had scheduled its last A330-300 flights. These ended up taking place three months later.

The final service touched down at TAP's Lisbon hub from Salvador, Brazil on July 13th. By this point, three of the four A330-300s had already left TAP. CS-TOU departed in April 2019, followed by CS-TOV in May, and CS-TOW in June. CS-TOX completed the cycle when it left for pastures new that October, thus ending the Airbus A330-300's short, sweet spell at TAP Air Portugal.

TAP's A330-300s ended up at Air Canada. Photo: Markus Eigenheer via Flickr

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Where are they now?

All four of the A330-300s that flew for TAP have ended up having rather uniform career patterns. Having come to TAP from one Star Alliance member in the form of Singapore Airlines, they have gone on to fly for another one, namely Air Canada. Upon joining the Canadian flag carrier, they were re-registered as C-GEFA, C-GEGC, C-GEGI, and C-GEGP. All four of these twinjets remain active today.

The first and fourth of these have 297 seats across three classes (241 economy, 24 premium economy, and 32 business class). Meanwhile, the second and third have a two-class 285-seat layout (255 economy and 30 business class). According to FlightRadar.com, their last flights at the time of writing were as follows:

C-GEFA - AC877 Lyon - Montréal, August 23rd
C-GEGC - AC825 Madrid - Toronto, August 23rd.
C-GEGI - AC809 Manchester - Toronto, August 23rd.
C-GEGP - AC738 San Francisco - Toronto, August 23rd.

The Airbus A330neo has become the dominant force in TAP's widebody fleet. Photo: Airbus

TAP's widebody fleet today

Let's conclude by taking a look at the makeup of TAP's present twin-aisle fleet. The Airbus A330neo's A330-900 variant is the dominant force here, with ch-aviation listing 19 examples as being present. All of these twinjets, which have an average age of just 3.3 years old, are active, and TAP has two more examples on order.

In terms of the older and smaller A330-200, TAP has just three of these left, with only one being active. Their average age is considerably higher, at 14.4 years old. The airline is also operating a pair of A340-300s on a leased basis.

Do you remember TAP's brief relationship with the Airbus A330-300? Did you ever fly on one of these widebodies at the airline? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments.