TAP Teases Premium Economy, with a Twist

The allure of premium economy’s increased revenue is calling TAP Air Portugal. The carrier will launch its version of the mid-market, high-yielding premium offering for the Summer 2026 season.

But it will skip over one key element of a typical premium economy experience.

---

---

TAP’s premium economy passengers will receive a premium meal on board, including the option to pre-order a specific main. They will be offered an amenity kit, premium pillow, and fancier headphones. Priority check-in, baggage handling, security, and boarding are also included.

But the seats on board will not change.

Rather than installing new seats to bring its new premium economy offering online TAP intends to simply block an adjacent seat in the cabin. For the carrier’s A321LR fleet this means blocked middle seats for the first three rows of the 3-3 layout. For the A330s a similar approach will be taken. The 2-4-2 existing layout will see one seat blocked in each of the outboard pair while two are blocked in the center section.

No doubt the comfort of not rubbing shoulders with an adjacent passenger is valuable. And this approach keeps TAP’s implementation costs low. The carrier won’t have to touch the cabin layouts nor buy new seats to deliver this offering.

---

---

But passengers will not receive extra legroom as part of the product. Nor will TAP’s new premium economy offer increased seat recline or width. No larger IFE screen nor other amenities typically offered by other carriers. It is, at the end of the day, still the regular economy class seat. And given its positioning directly behind business class the first row won’t even have moveable armrests to slightly increase passenger space.

TAP’s premium economy play is more than just a blocked seats. The upgraded soft product bits are nice inclusions for the product.

But will it be enough to truly move the needle for passenger comfort? And will travelers pay enough to offset not selling those 6-12 seats on board? And, perhaps more importantly, with they do so more than once given the new product’s competitive positioning in the market?