

TAP Air Portugal revealed a big U.S. expansion Thursday, announcing two new destinations that will grow its footprint here by 50 percent.

Flights from Chicago O’Hare will begin June 1 while service from Washington Dulles starts June 16. TAP will fly nonstop to Lisbon from both of its new U.S. cities, offering five flights a week with brand-new A330-900neo widebody jets on each route.



The expansion is part of broader resurgence that’s occurred at TAP since JetBlue founder David Neeleman became involved with the airline.

Neeleman, who can take credit for several major airline start-ups, was part of a group to take an ownership stake in TAP in 2015. Since then, the company has launched an overhaul of its product and brand.

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The airline had always had a strong presence on flights between Lisbon and Portuguese-speaking Brazil.

But now armed with a competitive new business-class cabin that features lie-flat seats and an overhaul of the cabin interior, TAP is aiming for a bigger spot in the North American market.

“It was always our goal to have at least as many destinations in North America as we have in South America," Neeleman said by phone in an interview with USA TODAY’s Today in the Sky blog. “With Washington and Chicago, we’re up to seven. And we’re going to be able to – hopefully by next summer – make it to 10, which is what we have in Brazil.”

Washington and Chicago give TAP six destinations in the United States, joining Boston, Miami, New York JFK and Newark Liberty. TAP also flies to Toronto in Canada.

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Neeleman said more were likely to be announced in 2019.

"There’s a couple that for sure that we’re going to do, "he said, noting there's "been a lot of talk" about possibilities like San Francisco.

"The West Coast is important to us," Neeleman said. "There are a lot of Portuguese in that live in that area. Getting from the West Coast to the Lisbon is an important market for us."

As for the new connections from Washington and Chicago O’Hare give TAP an opportunity to funnel passengers to and from Star Alliance partner United, which operates hubs at each.

But Neeleman said that’s only part of the picture in expanding to D.C. and Chicago.

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“Surely the United connections help, but you have to have a strong local market as well,” Neeleman said. “We have very strong local markets in both Washington and Chicago, they’re large metropolitan areas.”

Neeleman predicts each city will see strong demand to Lisbon, a destination he says has become “the hottest thing going.” But he says TAP’s Lisbon hub will help push the routes into the black.

“I think a lot of people in Washington and Chicago will want to go to Lisbon. And some people will just want to go to Spain or southern France or even all the way over to Italy,” he says. “There’s no better way to get to southern Europe than through Lisbon, because it sticks so far out in the Atlantic, it’s a perfect connection spot.”

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Neeleman says TAP has worked hard in recent years to shore up its hub there, where it had been facing pressure from fast-growing European discounters.

“Our European routes were not profitable,” he said about TAP’s operation there when he came into the airline. “Part of the reason is they were getting chased all over the place by Ryanair and easyJet.”

Now, Neeleman says TAP has moved to push back against the budget rivals.

“We got really aggressive in Europe,” he said. “We added some cities, we created a lower-fare section in the back of the airplane. We matched all of Ryanair’s fares. We added a ton of frequency in the markets where they were flying.”

That’s helped boost connecting options that can help fill Lisbon-bound flights with passengers connecting on to other destinations.

“It just became a lot easier to connect,” Neeleman said. “There’s a lot more frequency. And our (European) business just turned around. It was always a loser for the company and now it’s doing much, much better.”

Back in North America, TAP's new routes to Washington and Chicago will be flown with one of the world’s newest airplane models.

TAP will be the first airline in the world to fly the A330-900neo, the newest variant of Airbus’ A330 widebody model.

Contributing: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren

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