Portugal's airline, TAP, is going to inaugurate, on October 27, a flight between Lisbon and Casablanca, in Morocco. Apart from being one more option for Europeans to travel to the Arab country, and vice-versa, the new route is going to simplify the life of Brazilians who want to go to Morocco.
That is because TAP is the airline that has the largest number of flights between Brazil and Europe.
The company flies to eight Brazilian capitals: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Salvador, Recife, Fortaleza and Natal, and there are 67 weekly flights. The director general at TAP Brazil, Mário Carvalho, said to ANBA that the new route is going to represent an economy of time for Brazilians who want to fly to Morocco, as the flight should take a little over an hour.
There is currently not a direct connection between Brazil and North Africa. Those planning to visit the region must make a connection in some European capital, like Paris, which is further from Casablanca than Lisbon. "We saw a market opportunity in the Europeans traveling to Casablanca and in the Brazilian passengers," stated Carvalho.
According to him, the flight should be convenient for those traveling to Casablanca from Brazil, as flights leaving the country arrive in Lisbon in the morning, and the flight to Morocco should leave Portugal at 2:05 pm. The company is going to fly to the North African destination six times a week.
More than simplifying the travels of Brazilians, TAP is indirectly going to advertise Brazilian production. The jet to be used on the route is an Embraer 145, made in São José dos Campos, in the interior of São Paulo. The aircraft has a capacity for 45 passengers.
TAP was established in 1945 and belongs to the government of Portugal. The airline flies to 58 destinations in 27 different countries. In Africa the company already has flights to Bissau (Guinea Bissau), Dakar (Senegal), Luanda (Angola), Maputo (Mozambique), Johannesburg (South Africa), Sal and Praia (Cape Verde) and São Tomé (São Tomé and Príncipe).
In the first half of this year, the company transported 224,300 passengers between Europe and Africa, an increase of 19.2% over the same period last year.
Anba