Summer 2025 is shaping up to be one of the biggest on record for transatlantic flying.
On Tuesday, TAP Air Portugal announced three new high-profile seasonal routes between the U.S. and Portugal. They include:
- Boston to Porto, starting May 14
- Los Angeles to Lisbon, starting May 16
- San Francisco to Terceira in the Azores, starting June 3
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All three of the new routes will operate on a less-than-daily schedule. The Porto flight will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays through Oct. 25.
TAP will deploy a single-aisle Airbus A321LR on this 3,145-mile route.
Los Angeles to Lisbon will be operated on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays through May 25 before a fourth weekly frequency is added on Saturdays through Oct. 25. The route will use the wide-body Airbus A330-900neo.
Finally, the new Terceira route will be operated on Tuesdays through Aug. 26 and will use the Airbus A330-900neo.
As part of this expansion, TAP is adding two new destinations to its transatlantic portfolio. The first, Los Angeles, will undoubtedly be a welcome move for anyone based in Southern California given that Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) hasn’t historically had nonstops to Portugal, per Cirium schedules.
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The second, Terceira, is an island in the Azores. TAP already flies to Terceira’s Lajes Airport (TER) from Lisbon, and now it’ll be connected to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean with weekly nonstop service to San Francisco.
Interestingly, Azores Airlines already flies to Terceira from Boston and New York, but this new West Coast connection will be the longest flight to the island’s airport, clocking in at 4,918 miles.
Of course, this new route is unique simply in terms of the destination, but the frequency — just once a week on Tuesdays — might be an interesting choice as well.
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It’ll be interesting to see how many travelers from the Bay Area end up flying to the Azores for a week at a time (or perhaps TAP expects them to combine a trip to the Azores with some time in Lisbon).
Over the years, Azores Airlines has operated nonstops from Terceira to Oakland, California, so presumably this new TAP route will pull a similar mix of Bay Area travelers.
With this expansion, TAP is poised to offer more than 100 weekly flights from 11 North America gateways to Portugal this summer.
“We’re tremendously excited to announce new service from Logan to Porto, LAX to Lisbon and SFO to the Azores. Los Angeles will become TAP’s eighth US gateway. And, of course, all three new routes include our popular Portugal Stopover program where you can enjoy up to 10 days in Portugal enroute to any of our destinations in Europe, or on the way home, for no additional airfare,” Carlos Antunes, TAP’s director for the Americas, said in a statement.
All of these new routes come amid a broader industry-wide network expansion across Europe for next summer. The “Big Three” U.S. airlines — American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines — have all unveiled a slew of new routes and destinations to Europe.
The expansions include new service across the Iberian Peninsula, such as routes to Barcelona, Madrid and Bilbao, Spain, and Faro and Madeira, Portugal.
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