TAP Principles & Mission

Operating since 1945, the airline’s hub is in Lisbon, a key European gateway at the crossroads of Africa, North America and South America. The TAP network serves 75 destinations in 34 countries worldwide and it is the leading airline between Europe and Brazil.

Operating an average of more than 2,250 flights a week, TAP boasts a modern fleet of 55 Airbus aircraft, plus another 16 at the service of PGA, its regional airline, for a total of 71 aircraft. In keeping with its customer focus, TAP is constantly investing in innovation and in the use of new technologies in order to offer high quality, safe and reliable products and services.

Voted “World’s Best Airline to South America” by World Travel Awards (WTA) four years running – 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, TAP has thus seen its leadership reaffirmed in this fast-growing market. TAP Portugal was distinguished by UNESCO and by the International Union of Geological Sciences with the IYPE “Planet Earth Award 2010” in the category “Most Innovative Sustainable Product”. In April 2010, Condé Nast Traveller magazine named TAP “Best Airline”, and the prestigious US magazine Global Traveler voted it “Best European Airline” in 2011 and 2012. In December 2012 TAP was awarded the World’s Leading Airline to Africa for the third year in a row.

Pursuing a strategic orientation whose priority is satisfying its customers’ expectations, TAP continually strives to provide them with the most convenient solutions for their travel needs, offering them a product of ever-increasing value.

With this objective in mind, the airline has also established the best partnerships, both on land and in the air, enabling it to serve a wider number of destinations via code-sharing with other airlines, in addition to a wide variety of associated advantages and benefits. On May 14, Star Alliance celebrated its 15th anniversary. TAP enhanced the flight options offered to Customers with code­-share agreements established with Finnair (Finland) and with S7 Airlines (Russia) and Emirates. Along the same lines, and always with an eye towards meeting our customers’ needs and expectations, the airline has announced the opening of flights to three new destinations in Europe this year: Berlin, Turin and Bucharest. 

TAP aims to become a top airline on the international scene, taking advantage of all the business opportunities in the markets in which it operates and distinguishing itself by its operational efficiency and the quality of its services. 

The airline’s goal is to be the best choice for its customers’ travel needs at all times, as well as to ensure adequate levels of profitability for its shareholders and the best conditions for professional development for its employees. TAP has launched its "new" Business Class which is now even better in terms of comfort and quality and with new menus created by chef Vitor Sobral, who is reinterpreting typical Portuguese cuisine in a contemporary, creative and sophisticated way.

The year 2012 will also bring a repositioning of the TAP brand and the philosophy that guides its relationship with its customers with the launch of a new campaign centred on the concept of “TAP with arms wide open”. The slogan translates into the Portuguese airline’s extending a warm welcome and broadly embracing the cultural diversity and multiplicity of the destinations its network serves throughout the European, African and South American continents, symbolising TAP’s role in connecting and unifying three continents in the same embrace.

In 2012 several functionalities such as access to mobile check-in, flight schedules and promotions, infor­mation on network destinations and registration in TAP Victoria FFP are offered to Customers and new contents were available on iPhone, iPad Tablet and Android devices. The mobile check-in service (check-in via mobile phone) is extended to the majority of the European stations served by the company and TAP became one of the first European compa­nies to introduce connectivity services on board flights between Europe and both North and South America, operated in A330, with the launch of OnAir’s in-flight WiFi service. A new website dedicated to children - flipflap.flytap.com - is launched, and flytap.com is optimized for mobile devices.

TAP is also voted the Best Portuguese Company in Tourism by the Marketeer magazine, in May. TAP Maintenance & Engineering Unit is presented with the Silver Advertising Award, in the category Airline Contract Maintenance, by the prestigious Air Transport World magazine.

On board, TAP new toilet eco-bags are launched and distinguished with a Gold award by the UK Travel Plus as the BestEthically/ Sustai­nable Amenity Kit. Three Portuguese wines served on-board TAP have won awards in Poland in the "Cellars in the Sky 2012" awards promoted by Business Traveller Poland. 

According to Socialbakers.com, the world’s most quoted source on global Facebook use data, TAP has the best Customer Service in Portugal on this social network, with a wide advantage over the other companies included on the “TOP brands for social devotion” list in Portugal.

In 2012, TAP is also voted “Best Airline” operating in Portugal, according to the newspaper “Publituris” readers’ choice and the “Publituris Travel Awards” jury and has been recognised by Human Resources Portugal magazine as the company with the best balance between work and personal/family life. The Company is also distinguished for its contribution to the growth of the new Maputo International Airport.

All these factors led to a new record: the airline carried its 10 millionth passenger in 2012, a number never before achieved in a full year of operations.