Aero Portuguesa (AP, sometimes written Aero-Portuguesa, short names for the ''Sociedade Aero Portuguesa Lda.'' - Air Portuguese Society, Ltd.) was the first

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

with scheduled international services. It existed from 1934 to 1953, when its routes were integrated in the TAP service. AP was created with the main objective of providing a regular air connection between

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Flights from Lisbon to Casablanca and

Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capi ...

started in 1934, followed by Lisbon-Brazil service in 1936. There were also plans to establish routes between Lisbon,

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, between the Portuguese colonies of Guinea and Cape Verde and between the

French Congo The French Congo (french: Congo français) or Middle Congo (french: Moyen-Congo) was a French colony which at one time comprised the present-day area of the Republic of the Congo and parts of Gabon, and the Central African Republic. In 1910, ...

and the Portuguese colony of

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

, but the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

didn't allow this. During

, AP gained the importance of being the only company of a neutral country authorized to fly to a belligerent territory. Because of this, AP become the only way of communication of the allies with

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. These flights were used by many refugees from

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, who were looking for refuge in Tangier. The AP route from Lisbon to Casablanca became world-famous from the movie '' Casablanca'' with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. AP was absorbed by TAP in 1953.

Operated aircraft

* Wibault 283-T * Junkers Ju 52 *

Fokker F.VII The Fokker F.VII, also known as the Fokker Trimotor, was an airliner produced in the 1920s by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker, Fokker's American subsidiary Atlantic Aircraft Corporation, and other companies under licence. Design and d ...

Lockheed Lodestar The Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar is a passenger transport aircraft of the World War II era. Design and development Sales of the 10–14 passenger Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra, which first flew in 1937, had proved disappointing, despite the ai ...

Farman Farman Aviation Works (french: Avions Farman) was a French aircraft company founded and run by the brothers Richard, Henri, and Maurice Farman. They designed and constructed aircraft and engines from 1908 until 1936; during the French national ...

References

{{Airlines of Portugal Defunct airlines of Portugal Airlines established in 1934 Portuguese companies established in 1934 Airlines disestablished in 1953 1953 disestablishments in Portugal 1953 mergers and acquisitions