TAP is the European airline
Portuguese company named in the North American publication’s 10Best.
TAP Air Portugal has the best Economy Class in Europe and is among the 10 best worldwide, according to a selection made by readers of US newspaper USA Today, who voted to include the Portuguese Airline in the 10Best 2020 awards.
The 10 winning airlines in the 10Best 2020 “Best Economy Class” category are: 1. American Airlines; 2. AirAsia; 3. Delta Air Lines; 4. Southwest Airlines; 5. JetBlue; 6. TAP Air Portugal; 7. Emirates; 8. Singapore Airlines; 9. Virgin Atlantic; 10. Cathay Pacific.
Nominations for this award were picked by a panel of experts from the USA TODAY 10Best Readers Choice Awards and the votes were submitted online by readers.
The site 10Best.com attracts an average of five million readers per month and was acquired by the USA Today newspaper in 2013.
This award is yet another acknowledgement of the success of TAP’s major investment in North America. TAP is the European airline that has grown the fastest in the United States in recent years.
The Airline has quadrupled its number of North American destinations compared with 2015, when it only flew to Newark and Miami. Currently, the airline offers 8 destinations in total: Newark, Miami, Boston, Toronto, New York/JFK, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington D.C., and is preparing to open another: Montreal. In addition, weekly direct flights between Porto and Newark have been significantly increased. And soon there will also be a direct flight between Ponta Delgada and Boston.
In terms of the total number of flights per week, TAP has quintupled its North American operation in just five years. 16 flights per week were taking place in the summer of 2015; in the summer of 2020, a total of 832 weekly flights to North America will be available.
In 2019, the Airline transported more than a million passengers on all North American routes combined, an increase of 250 percent since 2015.
This solid growth by TAP is supported by a substantial enhancement and modernisation of the airline's fleet, the only one in the world to operate the entire NEO family of aircraft, Airbus’s most modern generation.
TAP’s fleet has now grown by 21 percent since 2015, more than any other European airline according to Flight Global data, and today it is one of the most modern in the world, notable for the level of service on board and the amenities provided, such as the entertainment and connectivity system. It has even been the world’s first to provide the WiFi text messaging service free of charge to all TAP passengers on intercontinental flights.
The new fleet has made it possible to double the level of customer satisfaction, as measured via the NPS (Net Promoter Score) tool, which was below 20 points for the older fleet and has climbed above 40 points with the A330neo aircraft, in Economy Class.
The new entertainment systems, among the most advanced on the market, and which offer an enormous variety of more than 100 films and 190 TV programmes per month, viewed on advanced high-definition 12-inch screens in economy class, are also greatly appreciated by customers and contributed to the USA Today award just received.
In environmental terms, TAP’s renovated, quieter fleet consumes, on average, roughly less than 10 percent of the fuel the older fleet consumed, thus reducing pollutant emissions per passenger transported.