TAP Air Portugal (TP, Lisbon) has taken delivery of its first and the world's first A330-900N from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) on November 26.
The first of twenty aircraft of the type scheduled to deliver until the end of next year, CS-TUB (msn 1836) is leased from Avolon and will be flown to Lisbon in the coming days. Ten of the aircraft have been ordered directly from Airbus while the others will be sourced from the order books of lessors including Air Lease Corporation.
TAP has chosen a three-class configuration for the type seating 298 passengers with thirty-four in Business Class, ninety-six in Economy Plus, and 168 in Economy.
According to ch-aviation fleets data, the Portuguese carrier currently operates a fleet consisting exclusively of Airbus aircraft which includes twenty-one A319-100s, twenty A320-200s, four A321-200s, thirteen A330-200s, four A330-300s, and four A340-300s. Its neo narrowbody fleet is composed of a single A320-200neo and two A321-200neo aircraft at present.
TAP is also taking over two ex-Primera Air Scandinavia (Billund) aircraft on lease from GECAS, according to a Skyliner Aviation report.
The A330-900s will be deployed on TAP's long-haul network from Lisbon and Porto to destinations in Angola, Brazil, Canada, Mozambique, the UK, the US, and Venezuela replacing its existing widebody fleet. As reported by ch-aviation earlier this year, the A330-300 fleet will be taken over by Star Alliance partner Air Canada (AC, Montréal Trudeau) starting next year.
