TORONTO — Travel agents and their Lisbon-bound clients can look forward to daily service on TAP Portugal’s Toronto-Lisbon route starting in June 2018, says TAP Portugal’s Carlos Paneiro, VP Sales North & Central America.

“That’s the plan,” said Paneiro yesterday at VisitPortugal’s trade event, which saw tour operators including ACV and Transat meeting with Portugal-based suppliers.

TAP Portugal currently has five weekly flights into Lisbon out of Toronto. The summer season flights started in early June. It’s been years since TAP flew out of Toronto and the carrier had Montreal flights at one time too. Toronto is the carrier’s fifth gateway in North America, with service operating Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Flights arrive in Toronto at 10 p.m. and depart for Lisbon at 11:55 p.m.

TAP is using A330s for the route, and the planes have been retrofitted with upgrades. There are 244 economy class seats (with a minimum 31” pitch) and 25 lie-flat business class seats.

Next month flight frequency out of Toronto will drop to three weekly flights, but Paneiro said he’s looking forward to the new daily service starting in June 2018.

The VisitPortugal trade event brought a number of Portugal’s top hotels, airlines, DMCs and regional promotion boards to Toronto and Montreal for a two-day sales mission. See visitportugal.com.