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55.9 million travelers: Passenger traffic in Portuguese airports up 5.8%

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Portuguese airports traffic increased by 6.2% in the first quarter of the year to over 11 million passengers, compared to the same period of 2018.

According to figures by Vinci Airports, which owns ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal, passenger traffic in Portuguese airports rose 5.8% in the past 12 months to 55.9 million passengers.

“In Portugal, traffic growth was particularly sharp in Faro (+12.3%) and Porto (+9.5%), reflecting the country’s continuous popularity amongst foreign tourists”, Vinci Airport said in a statement.

“At the Lisbon hub, traffic grew by 4.2%, despite the high base for comparison and the current capacity constraints”, the statement added.

The company also pointed out that there had been solid traffic growth (+6.4%) at the airports managed by Vinci Airports in the first quarter of 2019.

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Denmark airport welcomes opening of Norwegian Air base

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Billund Airport in Denmark confirmed that low-cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, more commonly and simply known as Norwegian, opened a new base at the airport yesterday, April 1, 2019.

The new base stations a 186-seat 737-800. With this commitment to the airport, Norwegian will open-up 8 new destinations. Four of the routes that the carrier will launch, namely Malaga (launched April 1), Palma de Mallorca (launches May 6), Ponta Delgada (May 7) and Faro (May 11) will be flown as scheduled services, while the following 4 destinations of Chania (May 5), Zante (May 6), Rhodes (May 10) and Kos (May 16) will be flown on behalf of Bravo Tours located in Denmark.

Norwegian’s new operation will add 14 extra weekly departures and contribute over 5,200 weekly two-way seats to the Billund market this summer.

Scheduled flights to Malaga will operate twice-weekly on Mondays and Fridays, before growing to a four times weekly service from 6 May when Wednesday and Sunday rotations will be added. Palma de Mallorca services will operate on Mondays and Fridays, while Faro sees a Saturday departure and Ponta Delgada being flown on Tuesdays. Operating for Bravo Tours, Chania will see three weekly flights on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, giving customers options for 7, 10, 11 and 14-night breaks in Crete, while Zante (Mondays), Kos (Thursdays) and Rhodes (Fridays) will all see a weekly service.

Norwegian, which carried 36.97 million passengers in the 12-month period ending November 30, 2018, has been operating from Billund since 2010. Presently serving the airport from Oslo Gardermoen on a year-round basis, the carrier also operates summer-seasonal services to Alicante and Barcelona. It means that in 2019 Norwegian will fly to 7 scheduled destinations from Billund, as well as the 4 destinations on behalf of Bravo Tours.

Travel News | eTurboNews

Thank you for flying TAP Air Portugal: Welcome to Tel Aviv

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Israel has about 9 million inhabitants and annually receives more than 4 million visitors. TAP Air Portugal landed its inaugural flight between Lisbon and Israel on time on Sunday night at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.

With this new route, TAP will offer connecting service from the United States via its Lisbon hub. Like all TAP’s “beyond Portugal” destinations, Tel Aviv qualifies for the airline’s stopover program en route.

TAP’s daily flight leaves Lisbon at 2:20 pm and arrives in Tel Aviv at 9:30 pm. From Tel Aviv, flights depart at 5:05 am, arriving in Lisbon at 9:00 am.

One of Israel’s main tourist attractions is the city of Jerusalem, where one can visit holy sites of various religions. Within walking distance are the Holy Sepulcher (Christian), the Wailing Wall (Jewish) and the Mosque of Al-Aqsa (Muslim).

But Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Nazareth, Tiberias, Caesarea, Haifa, the Dead Sea region, and in the Palestinian part, Bethlehem and Jericho, among other points, also have many attractions.

The Portugal Stopover comprises a network of more than 150 partners who provide exclusive offers for Stopover customers for hotels discounts and complimentary experiences such as tuk-tuk tours, visits to museums, dolphin watching in the River Sado and food tastings – even a free bottle of Portuguese wine in participating restaurants.

Travelers can also enjoy a stopover in Lisbon or Porto even if their final destination is in Portugal, such as: Faro (Algarve); Ponta Delgada or Terceira (the Azores); and, Funchal or Porto Santo (Madeira).

Furthermore, Stopover passengers can also create a multi-destination journey, making it will be possible to travel to one destination and return from another. For example, people may choose to fly to Barcelona then return from Seville, but they will still qualify for a stopover in Lisbon or Porto on either their outbound or return travel. Stopover visits are now also available on just one-way travel to Europe or Africa.

TAP will receive 37 new aircraft by the end of this year — and 71 by 2025 — thus becoming the operator of one of the most modern fleets in the world. This renewal and growth of the fleet has allowed TAP to announce new routes and more frequencies. From the United States, new service from San Francisco, Washington DC, and Chicago start in June. TAP has also announced new routes including Naples, Tenerife, Dublin, Basel and Conakry for 2019.

Travel News | eTurboNews