TAP express operated by Portugália Airlines revealed as ERA Gold Airline of the Year winner

Athens, Greece, 19 October 2017: TAP express operated by Portugália Airlines wins the ERA Airline of the Year Gold award at the association’s annual awards dinner. 

• Romanian carrier Blue Air receives the Silver award and SAS, flag carrier of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, is awarded Bronze.

The European Regions Airline Association (ERA*) hosted its annual awards ceremony on 18 October at the ERA General Assembly, taking place this year in Athens, Greece. At the ceremony, TAP express operated by Portugália Airlines was declared the winner of the prestigious ERA Airline of the Year Gold award, sponsored by ATR. The independent judging panel praised the airline for completing a total fleet renewal during the course of 12 months and managing a full, almost 3,800-hour retraining programme for its pilots, engineers and cabin crew while undergoing a total rebranding at the same time.

Luiz Plácido Lapa, Managing Director of TAP express operated by Portugália Airlines, commented: “The year of 2016 was crucial in Portugália’s history and the new TAP express brand was the beginning of a new cycle. In addition to the rebranding project, the phase-in of nine Embraer 190s simultaneously with the phase-out of another two fleets (six Fokker 100s and eight Embraer 145s), involving almost 3,800 training hours, resulted in a huge effort from the entire company. It is a great pride for us to be given this award as it is a mark of a mission accomplished. We believe that TAP express is already a brand cherished by customers and that’s what we work for every day.”

Gheorghe Racaru, CEO of Blue Air, commented on receiving the Silver award: “It is a proud moment for us at Blue Air to receive the Airline of the Year Silver Award. We are grateful for this recognition. 2016 has been a great year for Blue Air, as the company grew in every aspect: fleet, number of routes, transported passengers, opening a new operational base, becoming a full member of IATA, all contributing to Blue Air being the largest Romanian airline. Our clients have always been our focus and are the first ones benefiting from our expanding route network, allowing them to travel fast, safely and inexpensively to their destinations. We deeply appreciate this award and are flattered to be part of this year's award recipients.”

SAS received the Bronze award. Mikael Wångdahl, VP External Production at SAS, said: “We are very excited to win this award. In the last few years, wet lease has become a very important part of our strategy to ensure growth and also to be able to fly our customers to more destinations. We only work with experienced carriers in Europe and this is also an important element for us and for our customers. We look forward to further developing business with more ERA airline members, the experts in regional flying.”

For more information, please contact Satu Dahl, ERA Manager Corporate Communications, on +44 (0)1276 485582, +44 (0)7713 984792 or by email at satu.dahl@eraa.org.