Your TAP flights won’t change. Yet.

TAP finally has a new partner. It’s Thursday, 15 October. Twenty-eight degrees. Air quality: 40 (Good). Here’s what you need to know.

🗞️ TOP STORY

LUFTHANSA WINS TAP: WHAT CHANGES, AND WHAT DOESN’T

The government has chosen Lufthansa to buy into TAP, the biggest step yet in a privatisation process that has run all year. The German group will buy 44.9% of the Portuguese airline, with another 5% reserved for TAP’s workers. Any shares they don’t take up can go to Lufthansa, giving it up to 49.9%. If it takes the full stake, the deal is worth €1.201 billion, up to 16% more than the rival bid from Air France-KLM. Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said the two final offers were “robust and very equivalent”, and that the money tipped it.

In return, Lufthansa has committed to keeping the TAP name and its headquarters in Portugal, strengthening the Lisbon hub, protecting flights to the Azores, Madeira and the Portuguese-speaking world, including Brazil, and keeping TAP in the Star Alliance. It has also promised to keep existing agreements with TAP’s workers, grow the fleet from about 100 planes to 117 by 2035 and 130 once Lisbon’s new airport opens, invest €300 million in maintenance and engineering in Portugal, and base eight long-haul planes in Porto.

The state keeps the majority for now, which means it keeps control of the big strategic decisions, including the brand, the headquarters and the Lisbon hub. But Lufthansa has already offered to buy the rest in a second phase, which would value TAP at €2.552 billion in total. Selling a majority would need a new law.

Nothing happens overnight. The contracts are due to be signed by the end of December, then the European Commission and ANAC, Portugal’s civil aviation authority, have to approve the deal during 2027, with completion expected in early 2028. TAP’s pilots’ union has welcomed the choice, with its vice-president saying the airline is “in good hands”.

For passengers, nothing changes yet: your bookings, your miles and your routes stay as they are. Longer term, TAP becomes part of Europe’s biggest airline group. Lufthansa also wants TAP to join its transatlantic partnership with United Airlines, which could mean more joined-up connections between Lisbon and North America.

Bottom line: TAP is heading into Lufthansa’s group with its name and Lisbon hub protected, but whether it stays half-Portuguese depends on a second sale that would need a new law.

⚡ QUICK HITS

Work has started on the Lisbon–Porto high-speed rail line. Construction began on Monday on the first section, 71km between Porto-Campanhã and Oiã in the Aveiro district, which includes a new road and rail bridge over the Douro, a new station at Vila Nova de Gaia and a revamp of Porto’s Campanhã station. That section alone will cost around €2 billion, with €875 million from the European Investment Bank and €480 million in EU funding. Once the whole line is finished, Lisbon to Porto will take 1 hour and 15 minutes, and the government is aiming for a journey of about three hours between Lisbon and Madrid by 2034.

Planned power cuts will affect parts of Oeiras this morning. E-Redes, which runs the electricity network, has scheduled maintenance in Algés, Linda-a-Velha and Cruz Quebrada-Dafundo, with possible interruptions between 8am and noon. There are also cuts in Santarém this morning, and in Alverca do Ribatejo and Sobralinho tomorrow morning. Each lasts up to three hours, depending on the area. E-Redes publishes the exact postcodes affected on its website, and advises treating electrical installations as live throughout, since power can come back without warning.

Police searched two banks yesterday in a suspected €66 million property tax fraud. The Judicial Police carried out 53 searches across Lisbon, Porto and Setúbal, including at the headquarters of Banco Carregosa and Banco Angolano de Investimentos, and at homes, companies and law firms. Investigators suspect a network of shell companies was used between 2017 and 2025 to claim exemptions from IMT, the tax paid when buying property. Properties were allegedly passed between companies controlled by the same suspects for nominal sums, so the companies looked like genuine property traders. They were then allegedly sold to Portuguese and foreign investors to buy high-value property without paying the tax. The case is under judicial secrecy, and no suspects have been named.

PetDoctors Veterinários - An English-Speaking Vet for Your Dog or Cat

Moving to Portugal with a pet comes with a small, nagging worry: what happens when something's wrong and you can't explain it to the vet? PetDoctors Veterinários, with practices in Lisbon and Corroios, handles exactly that. The team runs consultations in English, so you actually understand your pet's diagnosis, treatment and options rather than nodding along and hoping.

It's a full small-animal practice for dogs and cats, not just a translator with a stethoscope. They cover the everyday essentials, vaccinations, health checks and preventive plans, right through to internal medicine and surgery.

They also run in-house blood work, so lab tests are done at the practice and results come back quickly, which means faster diagnoses and quicker decisions when your pet needs them. On top of that there's a dedicated dermatology clinic, genuinely useful if your dog or cat has been battling persistent itching, allergies, recurring ear infections or hair loss, the kind of thing that drags on when nobody gets to the root of it.

Whether you've just arrived and need to set up a vaccination schedule, or you've been here years and want a vet you can actually talk to, they see both Portuguese and international pet owners across Lisbon, Corroios and the surrounding areas. Their website is now fully in English too, so you can browse services and book easily.

The goal they set themselves is a simple one: to help your pet live a healthier, happier life, and to give you the information and support to make confident decisions about their care.

→ Find them and book an appointment ←

We only partner with businesses we think genuinely help our community. If this is useful to you, or if you know another pet owner who's been putting off finding a vet, every click and every share goes a long way to keeping this newsletter free every morning.

🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY

OXE COFFEE (ALCÂNTARA)

Follow the smell of cheese bread down Calçada da Tapada and you’ll find Oxe Coffee, a tiny café run by Beatriz Holanda and Karen Campos, who are both from north-east Brazil and met in Fortaleza. They kept their coffee machines and cups stored in a spare room until they found the right space, opening last year, and the whole place is a love letter to home. The menu is designed like a cordel, the illustrated folk booklets of the Brazilian north-east, there are colourful clay figurines, and ceramic cashews hang over the bathroom door, a north-eastern custom.

The pão de queijo is made fresh every day, cooked on the griddle and filled with creamy ham and cheese, chicken, dulce de leche or guava paste, for under €4 each. Tapiocas start at €5.90, and there’s bolo mole, a cake with the texture of a set custard that’s typical of Ceará, the owners’ home state. The espresso is €1.30, made with Brazilian beans roasted in Portugal, with notes of red fruit and chocolate. They’ve also started hosting pão de queijo and wine evenings.

Worth knowing before you go: it’s small, with room for about ten inside and three tables on the street, and the menu is deliberately short. It’s open from Wednesday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and until 4:30pm at weekends, but closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

→ Find them here ←

Insider tip: order a slice of bolo mole with your coffee. It’s the café’s signature.

📅 WHAT’S ON

See you tomorrow morning.

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