TAP Air Portugal has resumed direct flights to Caracas, Venezuela, following a six-month suspension due to a United States-issued security alert. The resumption marks the airline's 50th anniversary of operating the route, which officials describe as vital for the Portuguese diaspora. TAP plans to increase service in July with a new weekly direct flight to Funchal.
TAP resumes flights to Caracas after security pause
Saturday, 4 April 2026AI summary
Context & Explainers
TAP Air Portugal is Portugal’s flag-carrier airline, founded on 14 March 1945 as Transportes Aéreos Portugueses. It began operations in 1946 with Lisbon–Madrid and quickly opened the long “Linha Aérea Imperial” to Angola and Mozambique, symbolically linking mainland Portugal to its overseas territories. TAP entered the jet age in the 1960s, became Europe’s first all‑jet airline in 1967, and rebranded as TAP Air Portugal in 1979. Nationalised after the 1974 Carnation Revolution, it went through cycles of partial privatisation and renationalisation, remaining a strategic state‑controlled company due to its role in connectivity, tourism, exports, and the Portuguese diaspora, especially to Brazil, Africa, and North America. Today TAP operates an all‑Airbus fleet from its Lisbon hub, marketing itself as a bridge between Europe, Africa, and the Americas and as a key economic and symbolic asset for Portugal.
Sources (4)
- TAP resumes flights to Caracas and marks 50 years in VenezuelaDinheiro Vivo · 11:31am, 4 Apr 2026
- TAP resumes flights to Caracas: "We have been here since before Maduro took power, let's see how the situation is"CNN Portugal · 8:35am, 4 Apr 2026
- TAP resumes flights to Caracas and celebrates 50 years of the routeObservador · 11:25am, 4 Apr 2026
- Six months later, TAP resumes flights to VenezuelaExpresso · 8:35am, 4 Apr 2026
