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TAP: New record in November

By Out There 4.460 Comments

There were almost one million passengers, in a single month.

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Compared to 2015, and only in November, there was a growth of almost 200 thousand passengers, with a load factor very close to 80 percent in the whole network of the airliner. These results are mainly caused by a better management of supply by the airliner, with occasional increases in the number of seats made available whenever this is deemed necessary to satisfy the markets in which TAP finds greater demand.

The markets with bigger growths have been the North Atlantic and the Lisbon to Porto Air Bridge, both with over 100 percent gains, with flights to Europe and Africa growing at a more modest, but still interesting, rate: 20 percent growth in Europe, and almost 30 percent in Africa.

TAP wins “best European airline” award

By Out There One Comment

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According to Global Traveler, and after a series of surveys, TAP was elected the best European airliner. The sample, with some 22 thousand interviewed, was mostly made out of very frequent users of air transport.

It was also given the prize for the “best new route”, for the opening of the Boston to Lisbon connection.

For TAP, “to be amongst the best, especially in a selection made by frequent travelers, is very gratifying. It gives us an incentive to continue to work to provide a quality service, offering more and more reasons to deserve the preference of our passengers”, said Fernando Pinto, the airliner’s CEO.

The prize will be awarded in Los Angeles in December.

Christmas in Paris or London

By Out There 3.110 Comments

This texto may even be funny, but we don’t feel like laughing in a moment like this. Not when it’s about coming home to the family at such an important time as Christmas.

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Today “Madeira In & Out” did the maths and found that coming to Madeira between December 20th and January 2nd is more expensive than flying from London to Paris, London and – amazing – Ponta Delgada.

The differences are huge. Not even the time of the year is reason enough for the differences, because the same dates were kept throughout the exercice, except for a return flight from Ponta Delgadaa to Lisbon, on January 3rd.

The differences are huge, and even without trying to fiund out the reasons the result is scary. The images we show are clear.

And various questions are raised: like, does a third airliner flying to the Azores justify the differences in prices?

Is the weight of the New Year celebrations enough to justify the price differences?

Does the present model of resident subsidies influence – or not . the prices paid by parents to have their kids at home for Christmas and New Year?

Now it’s just a matter of doing the maths, and eciding whether it’s a good time to send your kid to London or Pari for Christmas. And if it is at all possible, go with him…

Corporate “retreats” to combat seasonality

By Out There 4.060 Comments

Amazing landscapes were one of the criteria of “Power2Blossom” to choose the venue of its “corporate retreats”.

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But we aren’t referring to Madeira. It is actually a strategy designed by this company, with experience in coaching and executive training, to offer customizable programmes where teams and executives can develop experiences and capacities that augment value generated for the corporations, all this taking advantage of the low season availability existing in the Azores to organize seminars and activities for enterprises.

The choice of the Azores as the ideal choice for these “retreats” derives from the fact that they are an inspiring destination, well equipped in terms of infrastructure, with variety and quality, and being thus able to create truly memorable learning experiences.

Local partners include Azores Airlines, hotel Royal Garden, Futurismo, Autatlantis, Barriga da Freira, Herdade do Cebolal and Adega Virtual.

More TAP in Christmas and New Year

By Out There No Comments

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Christmas and New Year are a special season, also for TAP. The airliner is planning 54 additional flights, for destinations like Funchal, Terceira, Paris, Luxemburg, Geneva and Zurich.

Caracas (Venezuela) will also see increased operations, with two extra flights, December 15th and January 5th, in both cases with the flight operating through Funchal.

Already one billion tourists in 2016

By Out There 619 Comments

Through the first nine months of 2016 there were almost one billion tourist throughout the world.. This is an increase of 34 million when compared to last year, according to data made available by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

 

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The demand for tourism remained strong though the first nine months of the year, even though growth is happening at a slower pace. Even though some destinations have quite good results, others have been affected by negative events, both within the country itself, and the region.

“No destination is immune from risks. It is necessary to increase cooperation in the way we react and avoid these risks, namely in the areas of safety and security, and it is imperative that tourism and tourists become an integral part of security and safety planning”, said Taleb Rifai, the UNWTO general secretary.

H e added that “tourism is one of the most resilient and faster growing activities, but is also very sensitive to risks, both real and perceived”.

Tourism growth has been led by the Asia/Pacific region (9 percent). In Europe, the continent in which tourism has more weight, both as source and as destination, growth has been much slower, in the order of 2 percent. Increases of over 10 percent in countries like Portugal, Spain, Hungary and Ireland have been offset by poor results in France, Belgium and Turkey.

Tourism spending is growing in the US (+9 percent), Germany (+5 percent), the UK (+10 percent) and France (+3 percent). In Russia it fell by 38 percent. Other eight countries have increased their weight in terms of tourism sources: Egypt, Argentina, Spain, Thailand, the Ukraine, Ireland and Norway have seen increases of over 10 percent.

SATA invests in new capabilities

By Out There 3.920 Comments

It’s not to happen this year, but SATA has contracted the acquisition of new aircraft it intends to use in connections to North America. The mission of the Azorean airliner is “to take the Azores to the world, and the world to the Azores”, says SATA Group CEO Paulo Menezes.

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SATA has been operating an Airbus fleet since 1999, made out of seven A310, A320 and A330, which have flown across the skies of Europe Canada and the United States. A tendency which is to increase, as the new machines chosen by SATA are to enable more of these connections, placing the Azores in a central position, half way between America and Europe, ideally situated to transport all thos wishing to visit the Azores.

The SATA fleet is to be modernized with the acquisition of various A321neo, and especially A321LR, with ranges of up to 4 thousand nautical miles transporting over 200 passengers and cargo.

The new flights from the US and Canada are to have practical connections to Madeira, allowing American and Canadian passengers easy access to Funchal airport.

Going beyond the fear of flying

By Out There One Comment

According to TAP, Portugal’s national airliner, between 1/10 and ¼ of all adults are afraid to fly. And being afraid of flying can nowadays be a real handicap, especially in an increasingly small world where people enter aircraft as, a generation ago, one would enter a bus or a train.

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A partnership between the airliner and the Unidade de Cuidados de Saúde Integrados do grupo TAP made the partnership “Ganhar Asas” (to gain wings) possible.

A multi faceted team (two psychologists, one pilot, and cabin crew member and one maintenance engineer) will accompany a small group of up to twelve people through a 24 houes course, spread over two and a half days, including sessions in aircraft mockups, flight simulators, an aircraft in maintenance and finally a real flight, between Lisbon and Madrid.

Through the years many of these courses were undertaken, but in 2016 there’ll be just one more, the 50th in TAP’s history, to take place in Lisbon in November 17th through 19th.

For twelve people it will be the opportunity to put the fear of flying behind him, and start to enjoy the possibilities opened by air mobility. In terms of prices, its 75 euro for the evaluation session, and 750 euro for the full course, this amount including the full course, support documentation, meals, and the flight from Lisbon to Madrid and back.