TAP – Transportes Aéreos Portugueses – has been a member of the Star Alliance since 2005 and operates on average 2,500 flights a week to 90 destinations[5] in 34 countries worldwide.

The airline began commercial services on 19 September 1946, performing an inaugural flight from Lisbon to Madrid, carrying a total of 11 passengers on one of its DC-3s.

[10] On 31 December 1946, TAP began its Linha Aérea Imperial, a twelve-stop colonial service including Luanda, Angola and Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), Mozambique.

[10] It covered 24.450 kilometres (15.193 mi; 13.202 nmi) within 15 days (both ways), making it the longest air service operated with twin-engine airliners at that time.

To suit the tropical conditions at most of these destinations, a special uniform was adopted, comprising khaki shirts with either skirts or shorts.

[10] During late 1955, several Lockheed Super Constellation four-engined pressurised airliners were acquired; these were immediately introduced on the TAP African scheduled services to Luanda and Lourenço Marques.

By the end of the decade, the firm had attained several milestones, including the carriage of 64,000 passengers, its fleet performing 10,000 hours of flight, a route network spanning 14,000 km, while also employing over 1,000 members of staff.

[10] Beginning in 1960, TAP launched Rio de Janeiro as its first destination in Brazil, in a jointly-operated air service named "Voo da Amizade" ("Friendship Flight") with Panair do Brasil (1960–1965) and Varig (1965–1967).

[13] During July 1962, TAP entered the jet era, having procured an initial batch of three French-built Sud Aviation Caravelle, an early twin-jet airliner.

[10] On 17 June 1966, TAP operated its first sole flight to Brazil, one of its 707s landed at Galeão Airport in Rio de Janeiro at precisely at the same time and on the same day as when the hydroplane Santa Cruz moored in Guanabara Bay in 1922, when Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho made their historic South Atlantic crossing.

In 1974, it became the first European airline to perform complete overhauls of the Pratt & Whitney JT9D turbofan engine, which powered early versions of the Boeing 747 amongst other aircraft.

In 1994, TAP signed for a code sharing arrangement with Delta Air Lines for North Atlantic service; this agreement came to an end during 2005.

Due to financial difficulties, the Swiss company ended up not buying the agreed shares of TAP Air Portugal, unilaterally revoking the partnership agreement which led to unexpected costs for the Portuguese airline in 2000.

[citation needed] In 2006, TAP Air Portugal signed a deal with Espírito Santo International for the acquisition of 99.81% of the Portuguese regional airline Portugália.

[19][20] In order to obtain its three-year national bailout, Portugal was forced to sell its interests in several companies, including the state-run airline.

[21] Portuguese financial daily Dinheiro Vivo indicated that the government would suspend privatization negotiations if German Efromovich's Synergy Aerospace bid was not approved.

[21][22] On 21 March 2014, the airline announced it would purchase two ATR 42-600s for subsidiary Portugália, replacing the smaller Beechcraft 1900D previously operated by PGA Express.

[33] That same day, it announced that the entire Portugália fleet would be replaced with new aircraft by July 2016, receiving a livery similar to TAP Air Portugal's.

[33] A downsizing of the carrier network also took place that month, with TAP announcing the end of long-haul flights to Panama City, Manaus and Bogota as well as European connections to Hanover and Zagreb.

[34] TAP Air Portugal planned to promote Portugal as a tourism destination in the United States, and Lisbon as a gateway into Europe for North American travellers, and in February 2016 announced the return of New York's John F. Kennedy International and Boston's Logan International as daily non-stop destinations from Lisbon.

[35] TAP expanded its network in 2017, adding 10 routes, some of which were previously operated by the airline: Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Alicante and Las Palmas, Spain; Bucharest, Romania; Budapest, Hungary; Cologne and Stuttgart, Germany; Fez, Morocco; Lomé, Togo; London City Airport, United Kingdom and Toronto, Canada.

The Department expects to issue additional orders assessing civil penalties for consumer protection violations this calendar year.

[9] The Portuguese governing majority in Parliament has since announced, in September 2022, it wants to reprivatize the company once again and is awaiting the right market moment to proceed with the plan.

The renationalization received strong criticism from the Portuguese Court of Audits which affirmed it would not be efficient and would burden taxpayers in various millions of euros.

Thus considering it an unprofitable public investment, with sovereign debt risk association for the State and consequentely menacing taxpayers' legitimate interests.

It does not operate its own cargo aircraft, but sells freight capacity aboard TAP's passenger flights and also maintains five scheduled all-cargo routes utilising other airlines: TAP Cargo also operates Lisbon-Luanda all-cargo non-regular flights, in an Avient Aviation DC-10F, a Girjet 747-200F, and other leased aircraft.

Due to space limitations, on 29 January 2010, the new premises of the Museu do Ar (Air Museum), in the municipality of Sintra, opened to the public.

This extensive museum is the result of a three-way partnership between airport operator Ana-Aeroportos, the Portuguese Air Force and TAP.

Many Europeans transit through Portugal to fly to Brazil due to a large number of airport slots TAP holds on the South American country.

TAP's in-flight magazine is named UP and is available on board, as a fully responsive website (compatible with desktops, smart phones and tablets), and as a freely downloadable application for Apple's iPad.