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TAP Air Portugal Resumes Flights between Portugal and the U.S.

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TAP Air Portugal resumed flights between the U.S. and Portugal on June 4th. The nonstop flight between Newark and Lisbon has resumed with service offered twice a week. The airline will be adding service in the coming weeks from Boston, Miami and Toronto, and in July they will launch new routes from Boston and Toronto to the Azores, and Montreal to Lisbon.

Portugal is open to visitors and there is no quarantine requirement for travelers flying to the mainland.  The country began reopening museums, monuments and palaces on May 18th. Further restrictions were lifted on June 1st, with shops, restaurants, bars, cinemas, theaters, auditoriums, and concert halls allowed to reopen. Public transport is now running once again, and beaches are scheduled to reopen on June 6th.

Some restrictions are in place for travelers flying into the islands of Madeira and the Azores. For more information on the restrictions to these islands, click here.

Portugal was not as severely impacted by the virus as some of its European neighbors, as it had just under 33,000 confirmed cases and approx. 1,400 deaths. The government was quick to react to the pandemic and contain its spread. As a result it has been among the first countries in Europe to reopen to foreign visitors.

For more information on flights from the U.S. to Portugal on TAP Air Portugal, click here.

Photo credit: TAP Air Portugal / Photo of Airbus 330

For assistance with your travel plans, including hotel and private tour reservations, click here.

Renfe to Introduce EVA in 2019 – A Lower Cost Train Option Between Madrid & Barcelona

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In February 2019 Renfe will begin offering lower cost train fares between Madrid and Barcelona. The state railway company recently announced the introduction of EVA, a budget version of the high-speed AVE train that currently operates on the Madrid-Barcelona route.

EVA will operate at similar speeds to the AVE and make the trip between Madrid (Atocha) and Barcelona in 2.5 hours, but rather than travel to Barcelona Sants station in the city center, it will take passengers to El Prat station near the airport (12 km from the city center). EVA fares will be €65 one way /  €130 for a round trip, which is a 25% discount off the current AVE prices. The budget-oriented EVA trains will not offer a business class and will squeeze more passengers onto a train by adding more seats (6 seats in a row vs. 4 on the AVE).

The new low-cost EVA service will begin service in February 2019, and if the test run is successful it may be expanded to other AVE routes, such as Madrid-Seville, in the future.

For more information from El País newspaper, click here

Photo credit: Renfe

For assistance with your travel plans, including hotel and private tour reservations, click here.

TAP Portugal Airline Adds New Route to Spain

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ILC-blog-Transportation-TAP-New-Route-to-SpainTAP is Portugal’s leading airline, serving 75 destinations in 34 countries worldwide. Earlier this year they announced that they had introduced a new route between Lisbon and Oviedo (Spain) starting on July 1st.

To learn more, read TAP’s press release:

Oviedo is TAP’s 11th new destination in 2014

Portuguese airline strengthens its market lead in the Iberian Peninsula.

TAP has announced the eleventh new route it is to launch in 2014. It will connect Lisbon and Oviedo from 1 July, and enable the Portuguese airline to strengthen its leadership in carrying passengers between the two Iberian countries.

The launch of the Oviedo service has been made possible because of an important change to the fleet operated by PGA — Portugália Airlines, with the replacement of two 19-seater Beechcraft 1900-D aircraft with two modern 46-seater ATR 42-600s, which also have a longer range.

There are many advantages to using the new ATR aircraft, including being able to improve the in-flight service and consequently customer satisfaction, greater reliability, seats that are more comfortable, lower noise levels, faster turnarounds, improved cost effectiveness, the ability to operate longer flights with greater options for use, lower fuel consumption per passenger per kilometre and lower CO2 emissions.

TAP routes currently using Beechcraft aircraft will in the future be served by the ATRs, representing a large increase in the number of seats on offer. This could result in an increase in the number of seats available to other destinations operated by the company.

Oviedo will become the eighth Spanish city with direct TAP flights, joining Madrid and Barcelona (which have direct flights from Lisbon, Porto and Funchal), Seville, La Coruña, Bilbao, Malaga and Valencia.

In 2013 TAP carried 944,000 passengers between Portugal and Spain, a 6% increase on 2012. With the increase in the number of seats announced and with this new route, the Portuguese company is getting ready to be the first to carry one million passengers between destinations on the Iberian Peninsula.

For more information on TAP, click here.

Photo credit: TAP

For assistance with your travel plans, including hotel and private tour reservations, click here.