TAP Air Portugal carried more than 7.5 million passengers over the first six months of this year, over 30% more compared to the same period in 2022. The airline noted a strong performance on its intercontinental routes, which exceeded its pre-pandemic levels by almost 15%.
The airline recorded a 30.2% increase in passengers in the first half of this year, serving a total of 7.58 million. The airline recorded a net profit of $70 million for 2022.
Although the airline recorded a strong recovery on its intercontinental routes, it still has to recover its European network making up 70% of its passenger capacity. The airline carried 5.41 million passengers across its continental network - which includes domestic and intra-European routes - 29.8% more than in 2022 but around 10% fewer than in 2019.
The carrier served 2.17 million passengers on its routes to Brazil, North America and Africa, 31.1% more than in the first half of 2022. The airline also exceeded its pre-COVID levels by 14.7% over the six-month period, showing how well its recovery is going. By the late summer of 2022, TAP had recovered 97% of its pre-pandemic Brazil traffic (from January 2022 to September 2022) and carried over 500,000 passengers to and from Brazil during that summer.
According to Reuters, Tap’s strong foothold in Brazil is one of the main reasons for IAG, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa to acquire stake in the airlines.
Portugal's government is planning to start TAP's privatization process as early as this month.
The airline’s average load factor across its network was 80.2% over the first half of 2023, a 5.5 percentage point improvement compared to 2022 and half a point higher than in 2019.