In the note, TAP said that it carried a total of 17.05 million passengers in 2019, up 1.29 million from 2018.

In December, the company carried 1.3 million passengers - which it said was also a "new record for the month” and up 14% on December 2018.

The occupancy rate of TAP flights last year was 80.1%, the company said.

"TAP's traffic indicators showed a very positive development in the last months of the year, after a first quarter with signs of a slowdown, allowing [the company] to close 2019 with growth in all major indicators," the airline said.