Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal, July 16, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's Azores Airlines recorded losses on ten routes that contributed to regional airline group SATA's negative results, the Azores regional government said on Wednesday, arguing that the group's 2024 accounts "were impacted by extraordinary factors".
In response to a request from the right wing Chega Party, consulted by the Lusa news agency, the regional government of the Azores (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM) indicated the Funchal/Boston, Funchal/Toronto, Funchal/New York, Porto/Boston, Porto/Toronto, Porto/New York and Ponta Delgada/London routes as loss-making connections.
The Azorean executive also reveals that the Terceira/New York, Terceira/Boston and Ponta Delgada/Milan operations had an impact on SATA's losses in 2024, as they posted negative results during the winter.
The two airlines of the SATA group, Azores Airlines (which flies to international destinations) and SATA Air Açores, closed 2024 with accumulated losses of €82.8 million, more than double the previous year, according to data released by the company on 8 June.
In its response to the Legislative Assembly, the Regional Government points to the leasing of aircraft with crew (ACMI), the revision of company agreements (which caused an additional cost of €10 million) and the court ruling that forced compensation of €6.4 million due to the Airbus A330 known as ‘Cachalote’ as justifications for the group's results.
Increased maintenance costs, depreciation and amortisation, in addition to impairments, are also presented as explanations for the group's loss, which even increased the number of flights and passengers in 2024.
"With regard to both Azores Airlines and Air Açores, and without prejudice to the different impact in each case, the 2024 results were affected by a number of extraordinary factors, some of which were non-operational and non-recurring," the document states.
According to the information provided, the "routes with the best financial performance" are those from Ponta Delgada and Terceira to Lisbon and Porto, and from Ponta Delgada to Boston, Toronto, Montreal, Bilbao and Frankfurt.
"The board of directors intends to consolidate European routes by increasing average revenue per passenger, while for the remaining routes, specifically domestic routes, it intends to increase daily frequencies," the regional government explained.
The Azores executive also promised to release the group's first quarter 2025 accounts "by the end of this month."
The information was released following a request from Chega demanding answers about the situation of the Azorean aviation group.
Last year, SATA Internacional - Azores Airlines recorded a net loss of €71.2 million, compared to a loss of €26.08 million in 2023.
SATA Air Açores reported a net loss of €11.6 million in 2024, compared to a loss of €9.97 million in the previous year.
The accumulated loss of the two companies thus totalled €82.8 million last year, more than double the €36 million reported in 2023.
RPYP/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
