TAP's A321LR: The game changer

Portugal’s geographical position in the world’s map offers TAP Air Portugal, a great asset and a competitive advantage in connecting Europe to America, from north to south. The A321LR launch was an unquestionable game changer in the industry and for TAP in particular.

TAP, Europe’s leading airline to South America and Africa, started the phase in of the A321LR aircraft in 2019 and will have a total of 14 aircraft of this state-of-the-art model in its fleet. This airplane is flying from/to Portugal to Canada, four destinations in the United States, to Northeast Brazil, to São Tomé and to Israel, offering the greatest features in a usual long-haul flight.

To ensure a consistent product among fleets, comparing to the A330-900 product, and a seamless experience for passengers when flying in this aircraft, a great effort has been made by the product development team. 

The necessary and understandable compromises had to be considered to get the perfect balance between passenger experience and weight. The weight constraints were always one of the main drivers in the selection of all hard products such as seats, galleys, galleys inserts, carpet, even lavatories, and many others selected items. When walking in the cabin, it seems obvious that seats are Thompson Vantage II model, same model used in TAP’s A330-200 fleet, and in fact they are, but with some structural adjustments introduced to keep the weight per seat as low as possible, without jeopardizing the comfort and passenger living space.

Now that travel restrictions related with the COVID-19 pandemic are dropped in most of the countries operated by TAP, and with the demand’s recovery, TAP Air Portugal  is finally taking the real advantages of this single-aisle aircraft and is allocating it, in combination with the A330-900, in its network. This also includes shorter flights in Europe, during which passengers are delighted with the flight experience offered in this bird.

"TAP Air Portugal leaded the way in transatlantic flights using the A321LR, and we will surely keep looking further ahead, signing new milestones for the industry"

Product management in an airline is a constant challenge as the main travel reasons can change in a drastic way as we experienced with the pandemic, as well as the demand varies from season to season and year to year and the airline needs to readjust all definitions to maximize the usage on the fleet as well as the product offered to its guests. The A321LR is the answer to solve a significant part of this problem and came to change the game in TAP’s history and the industry as the model has been chosen by many airlines.

TAP Air Portugal leaded the way in transatlantic flights using the A321LR, and we will surely keep looking further ahead, signing new milestones for the industry.