I.C.P. History

-The Interline Club of Portugal was founded in 1978.

-Following the movement that already existed in the world, in Portugal a group of colleagues from TAP established contacts with other colleagues from the aviation Companies and in a meeting in the house of one of them the future statutes of the Club was defined.
An Administrative commission was created with the first dynamic colleagues in this process whose main objective would be to disseminate information about the Club and try to find members interested in affiliating in the Club. This Commission managed the I.C.P. during one year. At the end of this year the statutes of the Club were created and the Club was officially registered. Subsequently a new Board was elected for the Club.
The first get-together dinner took place in December 1978 at the Hotel Roma with more than one hundred participants. To affiliate as member of the W.A.C.A. we were sponsored by BIC(Belgium Interline Club). The first Grand Party took place in November 1979 and the closing ceremony Gala dinner at the Hotel Sheraton with the participation of around three hundred international colleagues. It was after this event that the Club began to organize itself in an administrative way. The airline TAP loaned the Club until 1983 a small space at the first floor of its building located at "Marquês de Pombal" where the Club organised meetings and carried out other tasks with the support of many members and their families so that the information to all members could reach them with the lowest cost possible.

-In 1980 the President and the General Secretary attended the W.A.C.A.(World Airlines Club Association) General Assembly that took place in Honolulu - Hawaii. There they managed to convince the General Assembly, in competition with other clubs, to allow them to organize the W.A.C.A. General Assembly in Portugal in the year 1982.
In 1981 a group of members and Directors of the Club I.C.P., as a great tourist promotional ambassador, attended the W.A.C.A. General Assembly that took place in Athens where we distributed many gifts from Portugal which were donated by various Portuguese Companies. A slide show was presented to all participants giving details of the Programme planned for the General Assembly in 1982.
The W.A.C.A. General assembly that took place in Lisbon and the Algarve with the participation of around five hundred international colleagues, allowed the Club I.C.P. to gain financial stability and buy its actual headquarters just at the right moment precisely when TAP advised the Club that they needed the space that they had loaned to the Club. From this date onwards the Club I.C.P., now with its financial autonomy in the right direction "Alis Volat Propri Is" which is the foundation of its Statute, began to develop and organize social events and international sports events in order to collect funds since the revenue from the membership annual fee is insufficient to keep the Club moving forward.
During all these years the Club has organized the Grand Party during the month of October to celebrate its anniversary. This event has the participation of many Members of the Club and is also open to our international colleagues. It has been organized in various places of Portugal, just to mention some Lisbon, Porto, Estoril, Algarve, Figueira da Foz, Tróia, Aveiro, Braga, Viana do Castelo, Vila Real, Chaves, Funchal, etc.

-During all these years the Club has also organized great international sports championships of Football 11 and 5, Volleyball, Handball, Chess, Tennis, Golf, Table Tennis and even a Semi-marathon in Troia(with around 1.800 participants), one of the first to be organized in Portugal and giving way to now a days marathons organized every year in this country.
In these events we had the participation of various teams from the Airline Companies just to mention some as Iberia, Air France, SAS, Lufthansa, KLM, Sabena, Swissair, LOT, Aeroflot, Balkan Air, Malev, Finnair, Royal Air Maroc, Transbrasil, VASP, Varig; TAAG, LAM, TACV, SAA, Aerolineas Argentinas, Aeroméxico, Quantas, Ansett, Singapore Airlines, Air India, Alitália, Olympic, Canadian Pacific, Air Canada, TWA, American Airlines, Thai, Japan Airlines, British Airways, Air Lingus, Austrian Airlines, Amadeos, etc.

-The Club gave great support in promoting tourism, unique in this segment of the market, by bringing during all these years thousands of colleagues from the Aviation Companies all over the world giving them the opportunity to acquaint with our Country from the North to the South.\For this activity the Club was named by the Government a Public Utility Association as from March 23rd, 1984.
Today the Club continues open to all the employees from the Airline Companies early retired and retired colleagues and all those that were Club Members and had to get off their contracts with their Companies.
The social activities organized by I.C.P. is intended to get together all the Member colleagues in initiatives like Dinners with Fados, Theatre shows, strolls and cultural events in Portugal and other Countries. In the sports area the Club I.C.P. organizes National and International championships of Football 11 and 5, Volleyball, Tennis and Golf.
The Club regularly distributes to all its Members a newspaper with information about all the activities planned by the Club. Trough the W.A.C.A. our Club Members can participate in events organized by other Clubs of the world like the Safari in Kenya, Sauna Party in Finland, a Tour to Thailand or to India and Nepal, as an example, or also participate in the W.A.C.A. General Assembly which takes place every year at a different city/Country.

-This is a short summary to show what our Club is.

This text was prepared by: José Valdemar Estorninho - Member Nº 1
Free translation by: Joao G. Silva
Top