Angra do Heroísmo, Portugal, Sept. 28, 2026 (Lusa) - The low-cost airline Ryanair suspended its flights to the Azores six months ago and, according to the figures, the region has seen a reduction of at least 100,000 passengers and 70,000 overnight stays since April.
Ryanair announced it would end its operations to the Azores on 29 March, but the last flight took place on the 28th.
The airline, which had been flying to the Azores since 2015, cited airport charges and European environmental taxes as the reasons for its decision.
Since April, TAP and Azores Airlines, part of the SATA group, have operated air links between the archipelago and mainland Portugal.
According to the latest figures released by the Azores Regional Statistics Service (SREA), between April and August, 1,206,055 passengers arrived at the region's airports, 103,766 (7.9%) fewer than in the same period in 2025.
The drop in airport traffic led to fewer overnight stays in tourist accommodation.
The figures for August have not yet been released, but provisional figures for April to June and preliminary figures for July show the reduction amounted to more than 70,000 overnight stays.
Between April and July, hotels, private accommodation and rural tourism accounted for 1,967,881 overnight stays, 71,627 fewer than in the same period in 2025, representing a year-on-year fall of around 3.5%.
Although the Azores had services from 16 airlines this summer, only two operated flights between the islands and the rest of mainland Portugal.
From April to July alone, tourist accommodation in the region recorded 62,000 fewer overnight stays by tourists resident in Portugal than in 2025.
Since October 2025, tourism in the region has shown signs of slowing, with fewer overnight stays than in the same period the previous year.
The low-cost airline's departure at the end of March heightened business owners' concerns.
A study by EY-Parthenon, commissioned by the Ponta Delgada Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIPD), estimated that Ryanair's departure would result in an annual loss of «between 339,000 and 391,000 overnight stays», based on a scenario in which the airline carries between 102,886 and 118,561 tourists to the Azores each year.
According to the study, this reduction, in a sector that accounts for around 20% of the region's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), could lead to a fall of between 1.5% and 1.7% in the region's GDP by 2026, equivalent to a loss of between €90.1 million and €104.5 million per year.
The Irish airline, which operated flights between the islands of São Miguel and Terceira and Lisbon and Porto, announced in November 2025 that it intended to withdraw from the routes to the Azores and confirmed this in January 2026.
Although the Azorean government stated, at the time of the confirmation, that talks were still ongoing, Ryanair's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, ruled out any possibility of a U-turn.
At the end of February, the Azores' Regional Secretary for Tourism said that the government was working with TAP and SATA to mitigate the impact of Ryanair's withdrawal.
Berta Cabral also revealed that the government was taking «steps» to bring other airlines to the region in the «medium term», but noted that «only from the summer of 2027» might there eventually be a new airline operating flights between the region and the mainland.
Following Ryanair's withdrawal, the Azores Local Accommodation Association, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Agricultural Federation and the Portuguese Hotel Association issued a joint statement calling for the creation of a Route Development Fund and an immediate increase in the tourism promotion budget to €20 million.
The Azorean parliament approved the creation of the Air Route Development Fund in May.
In August, in response to criticism from the PS, which demanded the «rapid implementation» of the fund, the Azores' Minister for Tourism said that the government was «working in a serious, competent and well-founded manner to build an effective instrument that is legally robust and fully compatible with the European legal framework».
CYB/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
