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Aviation History
1974
1974 - 2028.PDF
PORTUGAL'S CHANGING AIRLINE prospects of the expansion of Empresa de Transportes Aereos de Angola (TAAG) and Direccao de Exploracao dos Transportes Aereos (Deta) of Mozambique are not viewed with alarm; rather, TAP believes that this sort of develop ment was inevitable and the expansion of trade and freer use of African airspace will more than compensate for any fall-off in military traffic and competition for business. Bilateral discussions on traffic rights have already been held and since November 1 joint services on the basis of shared revenues and expenses have been operated to Lisbon by TAP with TAAG and Deta respectively. Out bound load factors from Portugal have recovered from the earlier trough. TAP currently employs some 9,000 staff, including 1,000 based outside Portugal. Unlike many of the European flag carriers, the Portuguese airline is not Government-owned. It was formed in 1944 as a division of the Portuguese Civil Aviation Department but became a private company in 1953. About two-thirds of its employees hold shares in the airline. The change in emphasis in Africa has meant that a number of staff have asked to be transferred back to Portugal and this is posing some problems at a time when it might have been more appropriate to cut back numbers. Since its formation after the Second World War the airline has grown rapidly. Operations started in late 1946 With less than half a dozen war-surplus DC-3s flying services to Madrid three times weekly. By the end of the year regular 838 FLIGHT International, 12 December 1974 , Between 1955 and 1967 the fleet included the Super Constellation I049G i THE RAPID GROWTH OF TAP ' Passengers carried Route-km flown Freight (kg) Mail (kg) Route-km No of employees 19S4 27,310 2,028,259 118,938 107,700 13,346 593 1968 662,824 20,580,133 6,452,863 1,736,255 62,117 4,630 1973 1,589,154 41,116,435 26,104,462 3,141,076 95,525 8,568 fortnightly flights had begun to Lourengo Marques in Mozambique. At the time it was said to be the longest DC-3 route in the world, leaving Lisbon on a Monday and arriving at Lourenco Marques on a Tuesday—a week and a day later—having made 13 intermediate landings, includ ing six night stops. At Luanda in Angola, where the arrival took place on a Saturday, the passengers and crew rested for a day before leaving for Leopoldville (now Kinshasa). Line squalls, tropical storms and the lack of flying aids made night operations impossible while airfield conditions, the long stage lengths and the small number of alternative airfields reduced useful payloads. The maximum payload to Luanda was 12 passengers and to Lourenco Marques only nine. Pilots clocked up to 95hr flying in 14 days, involving 9-10hr in the air on some occasions in extremely difficult conditions. TAP now offers 8,500 seats every fortnight to Luanda on four 747B and 17 707-320C flights each week. In the early days of aviation Portugal provided a number of pioneers and several of these were associated with TAP and other airlines in Portuguese Africa. Colonel Sarmento de Beires opened up the 970km over sea Lisbon- Madeira route in 1920, flew from Portugal to Macao in 1924 and made the first South Atlantic crossing by night in 1927, the year Lindbergh flew from New York to Paris. Col de Beires suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 81, the day after the April revolution; he had been at odds with the previous regime for a number of years, having been imprisoned, banished from Portugal and dis missed from the Air Force, only to be reinstated and promoted two years before his death. Other pioneers include TAP's first chief pilot, Manuel Maria Rocha, who began flying for Deta in 1933. Two other Deta pilots, Capt Luis Branco and Capt Flavio de Carvalho, achieved the Following the political changes in Portugal, TAP is actively studying new destinations including Venezuela and Casablanca. A more direct route to Luanda cutting across the "bulge" of Africa should be open to the carrier as relations with black Africa improve
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