Introduction

My flight from Madrid arrives in Lisbon at 07h00 in the morning. In theory, I could have rebooked to the 08h30 departure to Zürich, but that would mean missing out on an opportunity to fly TAP’s A 321 LR with it’s fancy Business Class cabin. I’m not sure how comfortable it would be on a mid-range service, but for a short sector of just over two hours, it certainly beats your typical Euro-style Business Class cabin! But I’m jumping ahead.

I enter the terminal building, and it’s crawling with passengers just arrived on one of the many TAP flights from Latin America.

Lisbon airport is old, ugly, uncomfortable, and dated. A new airport is planned, but even after debating and discussing the project for decades now, I think they’re no nearer to actually starting on its construction.

The TAP Premier Lounge Lisbon

There are two lounges in the Schengen part of the terminal, and both are located one floor up from the public airside waiting area and are accessible via the escalators. The first lounge is a contractor lounge operated by the airport authority. The TAP lounge is next door, further down on the left.

The lounge is a lot like the rest of the terminal in that it’s an odd shape, way too small, and not attractive by any stretch of the imagination. The only thing it has going for it, is the view and the row of tables lined up by the windows. Alas, photography is somewhat problematic owing to the fact that the windows look as though they haven’t been cleaned since they were put in.

I am quite surprised, though, by how varied the traffic is. I’m also amazed by how much traffic the airport can handle as a single runway operation. Watching the aircraft coming and going, I’m guessing some of them receive a really very late clearance to land!

What I’ve also noticed, is that TAP is one of the few airlines I know of that has not given its NEOs the badger look. At least not all of them.

At 11h40 my ride to Zürich glides onto the runway in Lisbon inbound from Belem in Brazil after a flight time of seven hours and 45 minutes. Around the same time, the lounge removes the breakfast service, and I decide to have some lunch before boarding.

Boarding

As in Madrid this morning, no announcement is made to inform passengers that the flight is ready to board. We’re being bussed to the aircraft, which is parked on a remote stand on the apron in the middle of the airport. The problem is, though, that the A 321 is too long for me to be able to take any decent photos.

The Cabin & Seat

The flight is operated by an A 321 NEO LR, of which TAP has a fleet of thirteen. The good news is that TAP frequently deploys the aircraft on its shorthaul European network, for example to Zürich. The last time I flew with TAP from Orly to Lisbon was also on one of these aircraft.

There are five rows of Business Class for sixteen passengers in total. Rows 1, 3, and 5 are in a 2 + 2 configuration, whereas rows 2 and 4 are in a 1 + 1 configuration – hence the sixteen seats.

I’m seated on 2E, which is one of the individual seats. I think I wouldn’t mind doing an eight hour flight in this seat, but only if I had the single seat again.

What I do like a lot about the individual seats is that they offer good storage space.

The Service & Crew

This is another friendly TAP crew. Especially the cockpit crew are great! They communicate clearly and efficiently. I notice, for example, that everytime the captain makes an announcement, he also mentions when he’ll be making the next announcement. And he does. There is no service while we’re still on the ground. The menus were already placed at each seat in advance.

The Meal – Late Lunch

At least the weather has cleared up since this morning, and the view of the Iberian peninsula stretching out before us is quite spectacular.

The meal service starts straight away and one of the crew comes to take orders. There are two options for the main course. One is a beef pie, whereas the vegetarian option is pasta in a creamy, cheesy truffle sauce.

The starter is quite substantial. It consists of a plate of veggies served wih cream cheese and a hazelnut crumble. With that, the crew serves slices of a rather nice sourdough bread that goes well with the first course. The crew make two passes through the cabin with the bread. There’s also a small dish with butter on the tray.

For the main course, I have the beef pie. I’m the fourth passenger to be served and the cabin crew informs me that they’re out of vegetarian options. So the beef pie it is. I don’t mind, the pasta actually sounded a bit too heavy. It make me curious, though, about how airlines plan their catering. Having just three vegetarian meals for sixteen passengers doesn’t seem like much. Unless the Portuguese are notorious carnivores.

In any case, the pie is good and the beef is flaky and tender. It’s a bit dry, though. I was kind of expecting something akin to a British pie served in a sumptuously thick gravy. But this has no liquid at all beyond the butter in the short crust pastry. The pie is served with grilled asparagus and mushrooms.

I don’t have a coffee after the meal. I’m overcome by the urgent beed to have a nap. I extend the seat to the bed position an… zzz… I don’t even notice the cabin crew anymore, passing through the cabin handing out little chocolates. Fortunately, they have a heart for tired travellers and place two of the chocolates at my seat for when I wake up.

Arrival

It’s amazing how time flies when you fall asleep. It feels like I only just dozed off when the crew announce the top of descent. Our approach into Zürich is like the deluxe grand tour of the Swiss lakes. We enter into Switzerland near Geneva and then continue on a northeasterly track. As we go, we pass Lake Thun in the Bernese Oberland, followed by Lake Lucerne, Lake Zug and then Lake Zürich. We make a left turn to join the downwind for a runway 14 arrival.

We land on time. There’s a bit of a hold up while we wait for our gate to become available. It’s a nice balmy evening here in Switzerland. The weather’s lovely, but it’s already starting to feel like autumn.

Conclusion

Not bad, TAP. Not bad at all. Two out of two, I’d say. Taking into consideration the previous flight from Madrid earlier in the day, I’d say that this was a solid performance by the Portuguese airline. The crew were great on both flights and there was one crew member on the flight to Zürich who was just brilliant. Whenever he interacted with passengers, his face would break into a smile that immediately made you feel welcome. The food was also good, similar to the offerings on my last experience with TAP flying from Orly to Lisbon. Of course, the A 321 NEO LR helped. It’s quite the luxury these days to have so much space on European short-haul – even in Business.

The Portuguese government has put TAP Air Portugal up for sale. IAG, Air France KLM, and Lufthansa are all hoping to claim a 49 per cent stake in the airline. My vote goes to Air France KLM. IAG is probably already too dominant on the peninsula for TAP to have any viable future in the group. And Lufthansa would just try to pull off what it did, albeit unsuccessfully I should say, with Austrian and Brussels Airlines. The verdict is still out on ITA, but I suspect there are storm clouds looming on the horizon there too.