Today I am reporting a flight from Lisbon to Vienna in an A340-300. In the Summer TAP flies most of the time with A330s, sometimes smaller A320S or even A340-300. We were lucky to get the A340 on that flight since TAP plans the retirement of the type on 14th February 2019.
We were staying in a hotel in the city center and after a journey in the underground we arrived at LIS.
We went straight to the TAP check-in area. It was a self check-in area. We looked at the seat map in J and changed our seats for 5A and 5B.
Drop off where we didn't have to wait long.
After security check point we headed to the lounge, many shops on the way.
We took the escalator up. 2 lounges are next to each other : ANA and TAP Portugal
Opening times
ANA lounge
TAP lounge, the one we are going to visit.
It was not easy to find an empty table at the window, but we found one with leftovers, just until someone removed them.
Some quiet area between the restrooms and the reception.
The newspaper and magazines corner.
General view of the bar.
Detailed tour of the buffet:
- 2 different types of soup, one of them is sweet potato soup.
- Various canapés
- 4 sorts of pies and quiches.
- Cold meat and cheese.
- Crudités
- Various salads
- Only 2 hot dishes : mashed potato with minced meat (left) and stuffed pasta (right). I didn't take of the lids and you will have to wait later on to see those dishes in my plate.
- Breakfast corner with jam and bread.
- Desserts 1
- Desserts 2
- Fruits and baby food
- Choice of drinks
- Orange juice, red fruits juice, water and some cereals.
Looking at the buffet made you hungry ? Me too! Something I always like to try is hot chocolate from the machine, this one is not good at all! I also took fresh fruit juice (orange, pinapple…) which had a lot of pulp in it. With that I had a taste of both hot dishes : mashed potato with minced meat (left in the plate) and stuffed pasta (right).
Various canapé and pie. The salmon tasted good !
Sweet potato soup and red fruit juice. The soup tasted mainly like water. I should at least have added salt and pepper.
Crudités, cold meat and cheese.
For desert, some banana cake and chocolate cake.
There's no pizza available in the lounge, but our table neighbour decided to bring one! Ohterwise, the seats have some dirty stains.
I was looking for the ladiesroom, one door opened and I ended up in the shower room. Here is a panorama of it. No towels available without asking one.
Planespotting break since the view is not bad from the lounge's windows. I think some pictures of other aircrafts in a flight report can give other travel/flying ideas for the readers.
- Various A340-300 and A330 of TAP and Hi Fly Malta (the white one).
- QS B737-8 MAX
- TP A330-200
- DT B777-300
- S4 A321 neo
- AD A330-200
- AA B767-300
- DL B757-200
- TP ATR-72-600
- 6O A330-300
- S4 A310-300
- YU B767-300
- Portuguese Air Force C-130 Hecules
Gate S19 is announced so we'll leave the lounge for the gate.
We took the Star Alliance Gold lane thanks to my boyfriend's membership status and there was no waiting time.
We headed to a bus as our plane was on a remote stand. We were in the same bus as Economy Class passengers. From the bus we spot our aircraft.
The bus left us in front of door 2. We took door 1. Our aircraft is CS-TOA, aged 24 years old.
Fuselage shot from door 1. Our stairs have no protection like stairs number 2, which is a good thing for the next picture.
From the first stairs I had the opportunity to take a picture of this Hi Fly Malta white aircraft, also an A340-300 like ours to Vienna. A flight attendant saw me taking the picture from the door and told me it was the Pope's plane, because it's white. Of course I know it's not, but I laughed to his joke.
General view of the cabin.
I take my seat 5A.
The legroom is good.
Seats 6A and 6B behind.
The back of the J cabin.
Ongoing boarding at the second stairs.
Once boarding was completed, we were informed that departure would be delayed.
The seat pocket in front of me is not in great shape.
In the litterature pocket, we have: - TAP magazine and Duty Free magazine.
- Wine flyer and sickness bag.
- Safety card (both sides).
- Both sides of the instructions about the seat.
The remote control is on the left.
The controls for the seats.
My boyfriend decides to test the bed function. Very noisy and not flat. Not very confortable as he said.
The lights between the seats.
No pre-departure drink.
The safety demo was on the IFE.
After that the IFE was available during the whole flight.
We never found or received earphones so we used ours. We had sound in both ears only with the earphones slightly plugged in.
Push back delayed for ATC reasons.
This A321 of TK is followed by a fire truck.
Take-off with a nice view of the apron where we were parked earlier.
View of Terminal 2, mainly used by low-cost carriers.
The airport is surrounded by the city.
Parque Eduardo
City towards the ocean.
Harbour
25 de Abril bridge
The municipality of Almada, linked to Lisbon thanks to the previous bridge.
Beaches along Costa da Caparica.
Barreiro on the right.
Montijo Air Base in front of engine number 1.
Circle irrigation East of Atalaia.
Still over Portugal, not for long.
Map on the IFE
It's a bit cloudy for a while.
The ''no smoking'' sign should be ON and the ''seat belt'' should be OFF at that moment! It seems like it's not working for A and B seats.
No overhead compartment over the middle seats.
The meal will soon arrive, I'll need to get the table ready ! It is located under the right armrest.
Refreshing towel is given.
The refreshing towel is obviously not warm coming from the packaging.
After that we received the menu.
Menu side 1.
Menu side 2.
Choice of menu in detail.
I was rather interested in the first menu, but my boyfriend and I wanted to have a taste of both so I chose the pasta menu and let him have the pork dish.
Appetizer Guinea Fowl Confit Escabeche and Green Salad Main course Alentejo Style Pork with Green Asparagus Miga and Orange Salad or Radicchio Tortelinni Pasta with roasted hazelnuts, Pesto and Rocket Sauce Dessert Chocolate Mocha Mousse Coffee/tea
Appetizer is on the menu but we didn't get one. The meal is served with all covers removed by the crew. We got a hot bread. I ordered red fruits juice. It was filled with ice till the edge! No tablecoth.
Cutlery branded TAP
The naptkin had a hole. I asked my boyfriend to test it, because I couldn't.
First course: Guinea Fowl Confit Escabeche and Green Salad.
Butter, quite a large portion for one small bread we had.
Main course: Radicchio Tortelinni Pasta with roasted hazelnuts, Pesto and Rocket Sauce.
The dessert suffered from transport sickness: Chocolate Mocha Mousse.
My boyfriend's meal. The plastic covers were also removed except the butter was forgotten. The mousse au chocolat looks better!
The other choice: Alentejo Style Pork with Green Asparagus Miga and Orange Salad
Gree tea
Glass holder for Red fruits juice.
Outside, racing with another aircraft.
Map view over Switzerland.
Flying above the lakes.
Lake Zurich
Cruising at 12496 meters.
The Economy cabin in 2-4-2.
Business class Bathroom had a flower.
We are already flying over Austria.
As seen on the screen, the night is coming.
Outside, nice sunset.
On the other side…
The Danube River between engines 1 and 2.
Flying over The Danube River and Korneuburg.
Windturbines East of Kapellerfeld.
After landing, we arrived at our parking stand. Our left neighbour is an OS A320.
Great colors in the sky.
We leave the aircraft, bye bye TAP A340-300!
Last views of the plane while disembarking.
We didn't wait long at the bagage claim.
Finally we waited for the bus to the car park in front of Terminal 3.
Flightradar24 screenshot of the flight path.
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Verdict
TAP Air Portugal
8.1/10
Cabin8.0
Cabin crew8.0
Entertainment/wifi8.5
Meal/catering8.0
TAP Premium Lounge
7.5/10
Comfort7.0
Meal/catering8.0
Entertainment/wifi7.5
Services7.5
Lisbon - LIS
8.1/10
Efficiency9.0
Access9.0
Services7.5
Cleanliness7.0
Vienna - VIE
8.1/10
Efficiency9.0
Access8.5
Services7.5
Cleanliness7.5
Conclusion
It was a nice flight with a good meal. However the crew didn't offer pre-departure drink or appetizer as written on the menu. The crew was nice but not very pro active during service. However I had a nice chat with a flight attendant about the A340 after service. The cabin is definitely old, but don't worry the A340-300 will retire in a few months. For a medium-haul flight confort was ok as we didn't need to sleep. The seats were noisy when changing the position. IFE was working for the whole flight so in addition to the outside view there was enough entertainment. LIS: decent airport, but we spent most of our time in the lounge. TAP lounge : a good selection of food and drinks, especially cold food. It was quite busy when we stayed there. VIE: we were outside quite fast. Clean but narrow corridors on the way out.
9 LIKESLIKE TO THANK THE AUTHORTHANKS ! FLIGHT-REPORT LIKED
Hi EuroAirport68, thanks for this beautiful report! Lots of good planespotting--I always love that! Nice variety of traffic at LIS. I had no idea TAP flew widebodies to VIE in the summer, though I suppose it makes sense as there is a *A hub on both ends. Either way, it's nice to see more widebody flying within Europe! I'm pleasantly surprised by the TAP lounge and the variety of catering. It's not great, but better than expected giving that TAP don't have the best reputation. Seems like they are changing that with the new management. The cabin is ancient, but great for a regional flight and these old cabins won't be around too much longer, as you mentioned. The new TAP J cabins seems nice.
Beautiful shots of Lisbon on takeoff...it's especially beautiful with those 2 engines! Once again the onboard catering looks really nice in Euro J. Seems that TAP has one of the best catering for short-haul J. I love napkins with button holes on planes, haha. AA has them and they have definitely saved me from making messed during turbulence before, even if it looks a bit silly, haha.
Hello Kévin, Thanks for your comment and I'm glad you liked the pictures of planes. I was also surprised to find out that TAP was often flying wide bodies to Vienna and it's great for local planespotters at VIE since TAP has a few special liveries on their A330s. I'm sure you look great with your napkin hanging to the button ;) Would that be more fancy to use a tiny clothespin like on OS flights? Emilie
I never knew TAP was using their widebodies on European regional flights. Although seeing TAP's business on their A340 by your review, I think it would be a disappointment to be using their business on their long-haul flights. Nice detailed report though and thanks for sharing!
Thanks for your feedback! TAP was mainly sending wide bodies to Vienna during Spring and Summer. I agree with you, it would be disappointing on a long haul flight if someone wants to sleep.
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4 Comments
Beautiful shots of Lisbon on takeoff...it's especially beautiful with those 2 engines! Once again the onboard catering looks really nice in Euro J. Seems that TAP has one of the best catering for short-haul J. I love napkins with button holes on planes, haha. AA has them and they have definitely saved me from making messed during turbulence before, even if it looks a bit silly, haha.
Thanks for this lovely and well-written report!!
Thanks for your comment and I'm glad you liked the pictures of planes. I was also surprised to find out that TAP was often flying wide bodies to Vienna and it's great for local planespotters at VIE since TAP has a few special liveries on their A330s.
I'm sure you look great with your napkin hanging to the button ;) Would that be more fancy to use a tiny clothespin like on OS flights?
Emilie
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