TAP launches flights to Miami in 2011

As of next Summer, Miami will be the second destination in the USA to be served by TAP, with five frequencies a week Lisbon/Miami, which is the most emblematic city within the State of Florida and the main traffic distribution platform for passengers travelling from Central America & the Caribbean to Europe as well.

Miami is one of the most popular American destinations in Portugal, with more and more Portuguese travellers showing a growing interest in visiting the city every year. On the other hand, Miami also has considerable volumes of traffic using it as a gateway to fly out to Europe. All in all, the launch of direct operations connecting Portugal to Miami will be beneficial not only to the development of the incoming tourism into Portugal but also to respond to the growing demand for Miami.

Showing quite an interesting traffic potential, Miami also captures passengers from other cities in its vicinity such as Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, extending its influence also to more distant points in the area, namely the Parks in Orlando, Fort Mayers and Tampa. Furthermore, Miami is also the preferential departing base for the Caribbean Cruises industry, attracting as many as 12 million people in average every year.

With the launch of those direct flights, TAP expects to increase the traffic flows between Europe and Miami, thus reinforcing its competitive positioning at its Lisbon hub while gaining extra feeding traffic to its intra-European network too. Adding to this, TAP also aims at capturing more traffic flying between Portugal and Latin America, supported on the close cooperation established with other Star Alliance fellow members.

Currently, TAP operates direct flights to Newark departing Lisbon and Oporto, with seven weeklies out of Lisbon and three from Oporto in the Summer season (five weeklies from Lisbon and two weeklies from Oporto in Winter).

In 2010, TAP expects to carry some 175,000 passengers between Portugal and the USA, which represents an 11 per cent increase comparing to previous year. With the inauguration of the new Miami route due for 2011, TAP expectations point to a significant traffic growth by year-end.