Frasquilho was speaking at the baptism ceremony of TAP’s new Airbus A320neo, which now bears the name of guitarist Carlos Paredes, on the day that marks the 15th anniversary of his death.

TAP’s improvement is also due to the effort that has been made by other "players" to improve the entire operation of air transport especially at Lisbon’s very congested airport.

All this effort is reflected in an “improvement in our operation and the prospects for the year as a whole are positive".

On Monday, a study by flight compensation company, AirHelp revealed that the number of disrupted flights in Portugal decreased by 13% in the first half of 2019, compared to the same period in 2018.

The study also revealed that TAP, Ryanair and easyJet improved their performances, with TAP showing the best improvement, from 39.7% of flights disrupted in 2018 to 28.6% in 2019.

According to AirHelp's analysis, between January 1 and June 30, 2019, 75% of flights departing from Portugal arrived on time.

Asked whether the growth in the number of passengers this summer was in line with expectations of a year-on-year increase of between 800,000 and a million passengers, Frasquilho said only that here too "the prospects for the rest of the year are positive".

The first flight of the new A320neo will be on Wednesday, leaving Lisbon at 08.05 for Vienna, Austria.