Portugal's national carrier TAP plans to operate a scheduled route between Lisbon and Tel Aviv, according to an internal document distributed by the Israeli Embassy in Portugal.
The document states that, during a visit to Spain and Portugal a few weeks ago, Minister of Tourism Stas Misezhnikov met TAP's president, who said that he wanted to resume operating the route and establish direct aviation links between the two countries. The measure was part of a tourism agreement signed in January between Misezhnikov and Portugal's Minister of Tourism Bernardo Trindade.
Under the agreement, representatives from TAP are due to begin talks in a few weeks with the Israel Civil Aviation Authority to arrange the operations. The Lisbon-Tel Aviv route is planned to begin operating toward the end of the year.
TAP and El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL) used to operate a Lisbon-Tel Aviv route, but there have been no scheduled flights on the route for years. TAP has a network of destinations in Latin America, and if it begins flights to Israel, it will break El Al's exclusivity. El Al has a Tel Aviv-Sao Paulo route, with follow-on flights to other destinations in South America.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 11, 2010
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