For the past two years, I have flown out to Porto to go rowing. As TAP are the only airline on the London-Porto route apart from Ryanair, we have always flown with them. In 2007 we flew out on an Airbus A320 from Gatwick, and back on an A319 to Heathrow. This year, both flights were A319s, going from Gatwick.
Last year, I noticed (as a bit of a plane nerd :-) ) that the cabin crew could not be bothered about the safety of their passengers. The safety videos stopped halfway through, there were passengers who never put their seatbelt on through the whole flight, a generally poor experience, and I vowed never to set foot on a TAP plane again. However, I don't book the tickets for the flights to Porto, and as the only other airline on the London-Porto route is Ryanair (and airline I hate with a passion!), I reluctantly accepted my fate, and arrived at Gatwick for the lunchtime flight. When I arrived at the check in desk I was greeted by a cheerful lady, who was quick and efficient, and I had waved goodbye to my bags and received my boarding pass, and was off through security. Gatwick was
better than I'd expected. It was relatively clean, and not too hard to find the gate, and they'd been doing something about the lack of information, with some nice big plasma screens going up, listing all the departures for the next few hours from that terminal, and evidently being paid for by the adverts that half of them were displaying. The shopping was standard fare (though the Fat Face store was useful, as I'd forgotten my flip flops, so bought a nice new pair on the cheap), and I got lunch, not expecting much on the plane. When we eventually were called to the gate, there was nothing there, but a clean (and in TAP's new livery, which I expected came with a cabin refresh too, but didn't) Airbus A319 pulled up at the gate. They then did a quick turnaround, and as I was at the rear of the plane, was in the first batch to board, and the cleaners were just leaving the rear doors when we walked onboard. There were 4 flight attendants, 2 at the door and 2 at the back of the cabin, helping passengers get seated etc. My seat was tatty on both flights, but on the outbound, there was a bar across in the seat that dug into my back when I reclined the seat. Not very comfortable, they need new seats in their A320 family jets.
This year, however, they seemed to have got their act together regarding safety . The screens came down, and we were shown the whole video, before the crew came through the cabin, checking for errant luggage and for seatbelts. We had a group of OAPs, on a Saga holiday, and a couple had difficulty with the seatbelts, but the crew helped them sort it out very professionally.
We pushed back (though beware with Airbus narrowbodies, they do make some very odd noises, coming from under the floor) and had a quick taxi to the runway, and didn't wait long (queue barging in front of an Astreus 757 and a pair of BA 737s), presumably because we were delayed already. The flight was uneventful, with some light turbulence over the Bay of Biscay. On the outbound flight we had no in flight entertainment, but I didn't mind, that's what an iPod's for.
One great thing about TAP is the food. They do 2 drinks services, one before and one after the 'meal'. The 'meal' is a hot roll, and is definitely the best food I've had on a plane. There's not a huge amount (do you need much on a 2 hour flight?), but it's tasty and filling and there's some fruit salad for pudding too. Besides, the lady next to me didn't want hers, so gave it to me, so I was happy. On the way out the rolls were filled with a kind of mincemeat stuff, not unlike bolognaise sauce, which was delicious. The return had tasty ham in a nice cheesy sauce. Much nicer than the hard, small roll on Lufthansa. The only problem with the drinks service is that they have the fizzy drinks in bottles, which as they're constantly getting knocked around, are slightly flat if you get the dregs. Generally, the staff were slightly annoyed to have to serve all this out, and did it grudgingly. They simply put 3 boxes off food onto a tray, and held it out to the passengers on each side of the plane, whereas Lufthansa, despite giving out less food (but cans of drinks), had service with a smile, which goes a long way. Lufthansa were also much more welcoming when boarding than TAP.
Arrival to Porto was uneventful, if a slightly hard touchdown and braking, to take a certain runway exit. We deplaned by jetway (boiling hot) and went into the pleasantly cool terminal. Immigration was quick (plenty of desks, and most passengers were from the EU) though it took a little while to get all the bags, although all of this was the handling agent not TAP.
The return flight was worse, with crew generally fed up, and they put on the IFE, did the food and drinks, and we didn't see them again. The check-in wasn't as fast as in London, and the operator was unsmiling and looked tired. I wasn't sure quite where to go in the airport (which was much busier than the year before, TAP have been on an expansion, and there were much more airlines on the departures list) and the staff didn't seem to know either. They also didn't know what to do when our plane was delayed. Arrival at Gatwick was standard fare, with a long wait for bags, followed by a quick rush to catch the train home.
Overall, I'm quite pleased with TAP. True, their on-time performance has been four out of four late, but on the return flights they have not been too late, only about 15 minutes. The outbounds were both delayed for more than an hour.
Just a slight word of warning, Porto airport is not like a British airport. It's immaculate, and stunning architecturally, but is lacking in the shops we're used to, unlike Heathrow and Gatwick which are polar opposites (ugly, crumbling edifices to consumerism! I'll have to try Heathrow Terminal 5 though...)
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Good thorough review. I've not flown with TAP, but I quite like the sound of them from what you say, being quite capable of fastening my own seatbelt without instructions. And Porto airport sounds just the job; I hate our crummy BAA terminals crammed with retail outlets.
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