Transportes Aéreos Potugueses, known commonly as TAP Air Portugal, operates to 90 destinations in 34 countries across the world. 7, soon to be 8 with the resumption of service to Los Angeles on May 16th, are in the United States, mostly on the Eastern Seaboard or where the airline’s Star Alliance partner, United Airlines, has a major hub. This sees the airline’s long-haul fleet of A330-200s and A330-900neos, the latter of which TAP is the launch customer for, fly as far west as Chicago and San Francisco. Today, we’ll be flying to United’s West Coast fortress hub at San Francisco, which sees service from almost every Star Alliance carrier serving the States.
Server: Solo
Airline: TAP Air Portugal
Aircraft: Airbus A330-900neo
Origin: Humberto Delgado Airport, Olivais, Portugal (LIS)
Destination: San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California (SFO)
Flight Number: TP237
Route: LPPT-KSFO
Seat: 10K (EconomyXtra)
Time En Route: 11 Hours 26 Minutes
Boarding at Lisbon Airport. Our aircraft, CS-TUG, is named Pedro Álvares Cabral after the Portuguese explorer, the first European to reach Brazil. TAP currently has 21 A330s in its fleet, divided between 2x A330-200s and 19 A330-900neos, with a further 2x of A339s on order.
Pushing back for departure. We’ve got an exit row seat in economy, one of the first 11 rows marketed as EconomyXtra.
Takeoff from Lisbon
Leaving the Portuguese coast
Heading west over the Atlantic at 36,000 feet
Cruising over the badlands of Montana
Descending into the Bay near Napa, California
Arriving on Runway 28L in San Fran
Taxiing into the alley between the T3 F Gates and the G Gates of the International Terminal
Deplaned in the late afternoon at SFO