TAP Portugal today announced the launch of its 11th new route in 2014,which will connect Lisbon and Oviedo, Spain, as of next July 1st, thereby allowing the Portuguese airline to reinforce its leadership in the air transport of passengers between both countries within the Iberian Peninsula.

The launch of direct flights to Oviedo was made possible thanks to an important change introduced in PGA’s fleet, with two ATR 42-600 aircraft entering operation and substituting the former Beechcraft 1900-D. This will considerably increase the capacity offered, as the ATR has 46 seats whereas the Beechcraft only has 19 seats. With a larger flight range, the ATR can also operate different routes and extend the operations flexibility.

In addition, the launch of the ATR into operation will also grant some more advantages, such as improving the in-flight service and offering more comfortable seats, thus adding to customers’ better satisfaction in the whole. Moreover, these aircraft will also grow the operations reliability and decrease noise levels and turn-around times, adding to a more efficient operation and allowing lower fuel consumption / Passenger / Km and lower CO2 emissions.

Therefore, the routes currently operated with the Beechcraft will from July onwards be operated with the ATR’s, with a considerable increase in the available capacity that will result into an increase in offer to other destinations of the Network as well.

Oviedo now becomes the 8th Spanish destination served with TAP direct flights. In the whole, TAP already operates to Madrid and Barcelona (with direct flights departing Lisbon, Porto and Funchal) and also to Seville, Coruña, Bilbao, Malaga and Valencia.

In 2013, TAP carried as many as 994,000 passengers between Portugal and Spain, with a six per cent growth year on year. The increase in frequencies offered, that had been already announced earlier, along with this new route to Oviedo altogether will now prompt TAP to be the first airline to overcome this year the target of 1 million passengers carried between destinations within the Iberian Peninsula.