The airline's announcement means that the direct connection between Southern California and Portugal, which was scheduled to end on October 25th, will remain, with TAP being the only airline operating the connection between Los Angeles and Lisbon.

The airline said in a statement that this is its longest flight of all its routes, and that it will have three weekly services – every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, using Airbus A330-900 aircraft.

This is the first time TAP has occupied its own space at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

When the route was inaugurated on May 16, TAP CEO Luís Rodrigues told Lusa that this was a long-term investment aimed at capitalising on the closer ties between Portugal and California, which have grown in recent years.

"If this route performs better than others, we can and have an obligation to consider diverting resources here," the official emphasized at the time.

There had been no direct connection between Portugal and Southern California for over two decades, where there are several Portuguese-American communities that used other routes or airlines to visit the country.

Los Angeles will also host two major sporting events in the near future: the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games, which Luís Rodrigues mentioned as good opportunities to cement the route.

With the permanent addition of the city, TAP now has eight gateways in the United States: Los Angeles, New York, Newark, Boston, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.

The company said that during the summer, it will operate more than 100 weekly flights to North America, including Toronto and Montreal, Canada, and Cancun, Mexico.