I had similar issue with TAP in November (misconnection) and carrier also answered me with a copy-paste message (airport restrictions) like this:
We apologise for the delay of the flight TP 1482 from DSS to LIS on the 11-11-2019., which was due to airport restrictions. All the reasonable measures have been taken in order to minimize the consequences of a situation, which is completely unrelated to TAP Air Portugal. In the terms of the EU Regulation 261/2004, there is no compensation in case of extraordinary circumstance, as verified in this situation.
Due to delay of about 30 minutes of Dakar-Lisbon flight TP1482 (02:05 a.m. – 06:00 a.m.) I missed my connecting flight TP536 from Lisbon to Berlin Tegel (scheduled departure time was 07:05 a.m. / arrival 11:35 a.m.). After landing in Lisbon I was surprised that there was no attempt from the ground staff to transfer me and other passengers on the flight TP536 to Berlin Tegel. I need to highlight that there were at least 10 people booked on the same connection DSS-LIS-TXL and we expected some action from the airline (like taking us all together through passport and security control and short transfer to the aircraft). Instead of this I received SMS with new flight details when I was still on board of the plane TP1482. We were rebooked by TAP when we were in the air, there was no chance given to us to catch our connecting flights in Lisbon, new flight details were:
TP932 Lisbon-Zurich 08:50 - 12:40
LX968 Zurich-Berlin Tegel 13:40 - 15:05 (arrived on time)
As you can see, the arrival time in Berlin Tegel (TXL) was more than 3 hours later (but still less than 4 hours) than the original ETA (11:35).
What I found out on Flight Radar 24 was quite surprising as both my original flights TP1482 (DSS-LIS) and TP536 (LIS-TXL) on 11th November 2019 were physically operated by the same aircraft Airbus A321 with reg. number CS-TJF. In this case it should have been quite easy for TAP staff at the Lisbon airport to transfer all connecting passengers on time (around 10 people with me were booked on the same route), especially when taking into consideration that the aircraft arrived at 06:24 a.m. and departed more than 1 hour later at 07:28 a.m. local time. All passengers were automatically rebooked for later flights when we were still airborne while the same airplane CS-TJF was scheduled to fly to Berlin after turn around in Lisbon. After getting in touch with ground staff at LIS airport straight after landing we asked for possibility to still catch our original connection but we were told that the gate is closed, we were given new boarding cards and vouchers for breakfast.
As a passenger I didn't notice any particular issues at the airport in Dakar and the other operations run on time (previous flight LIS-DSS arrived on time), the pilot didn't mention anything particular to the passengers on board regarding this slight delay of our departure from (but of course I may be wrong and we were just not informed about “airport restrictions”). The main issue in my case was not the delay of the aircraft (as the arrival in LIS airport was in fact only around 25 minutes later than the original ETA) but the quite short connecting time in Lisbon airport (exactly 1 hour and 5 minutes in reservation).
After getting two “copy paste” rejections from TAP I submitted last month a claim at ANAC in Portugal and LBA in Germany. Do you think is there any change for getting financial compensation (300 EUR / 600 EUR) from the airlines according to the Regulation (EC) No 261/2004? Do they need to prove somehow the question of “airport restrictions”? Thanks a lot for your advice / opinions.