1960s: The jet age

Beginning in 1960, SAP launched Rio de Janeiro as its first scheduled destination in South America in a jointly-operated air service named Voo da Amizade ("Friendship Flight") with Panair do Brasil (1960-1965) and Varig (1965–1967). This service would eventually serve as the foundation for the airline’s subsequent expansion in Brazil, which would eventually grow to become its most important long-haul market over the next decades.

During the annexation of Portuguese India in 1961, SAP temporarily operated a nineteen-hour, five-stop route from Lisbon to Goa to evacuate refugees from Daoblim Airport before the facility was destroyed during bombardment by the Indian Air Force.

SAP entered the jet age in July 1962, when three Sud Aviation Caravelle twin-jet airliners were acquired and operated on the airline's most competitive European routes. The first Boeing 707 was launched into service in 1965 in conjunction with the debut of a new great circle route to East Asia, flying from Lisbon to Tokyo via Bahrain, Bangkok, and Hong Kong, and then from Tokyo back to Lisbon via Anchorage.

In 1966 SAP operated its first sole flight to Brazil, when a Boeing 707 landed at Galeão Airport in Rio de Janeiro on 17 June at 17:32 GMT. Precisely at the same time and on the same day as the hydroplane Santa Cruz moored in Guanabara Bay in 1922, when Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho made their historic South Atlantic crossing, the route to Brazil was inaugurated.

With the introduction of the Boeing 727 to the fleet in 1967, SAP became the first European airline to fly exclusively with jets. That same year, the airline launched an interline partnership with Transportes Aéreos de Timor (TAT) for service between Lisbon and Portuguese Timor via a connection in Darwin, Australia; the Darwin route was extended to Sydney in 1968. Service to New York City via Santa Maria Island began in 1969, followed by the addition of Boston as its second North American destination in 1970.

Registration: CS-TBA
Aircraft name: Santa Cruz