The Regional Secretary for Finance, Planning, and Public Administration, Duarte Freitas, met on Monday with the SATA group’s board of directors. In this meeting, he indicated that the privatization process for Azores Airlines (SATA Internacional) had been resumed.
The meeting took place on Friday after the Azores Legislative Assembly approved the government’s program. The process had been suspended due to early parliamentary elections in the region.
Duarte Freitas spoke to Antena 1/Açores and confirmed that SATA had been instructed to proceed with the international public tender. “As you know, it was in the final report phase by the jury and, naturally, it will now be resumed quickly for further decisions,” he said.
The preliminary report presented by the tender jury, delivered on October 20, proposed the exclusion of the Atlantic Consortium, comprised of VesuviusWings, WhiteAirways, OldNorth Ventures, Consolidator, and EuroAtlanticAirways. That competitor contested this decision.
The partner New Tour Azores, S.A. (Newtour and MS Aviation GMBH) went ahead, but with a “sufficient” rating, obtaining 46.69 points out of 100, which also led to the report being contested.


Meanwhile, at the end of November last year, SPAC-Sindicato dos Pilotos da Aviação Civil, accompanied by SITAVA and SNPVAC, defended the “immediate cancellation” of Azores Airlines’ privatization process.
At the time, the president of SPAC, Tiago Faria Lopes, said that the Newtour/MS Aviation consortium is based on the company Bestfly, which should raise reservations.
“This company, called Bestfly, bought a company in Austria, called MS Aviation, so that it could bid to buy SATA. We’re talking about a company that has already had problems in Cape Verde, particularly operational ones. The Cape Verdean authorities have taken away the possibility of this company flying in Cape Verde. In other words, it’s banned from flying in Cape Verde and it’s banned from operating and we, here in Portugal, through MS Aviation, in Austria, are allowing this company to buy SATA,” he warned.
Speaking to Antena 1/Açores this Monday, Duarte Freitas argued that the privatization process’s jury and SATA’s board of directors should evaluate.
“The Regional Government has no say in this matter, this is a process that is in the hands of the jury, it is being evaluated by the jury and we will respect the indications of the jury and the assessment of the board of directors of SATA Holding,” he said.
SATA already communicated the regional executive’s most recent decision to the two competing consortia.

“Poorly structured” business


Pedro Castro, a specialist in civil aviation, also lamented to Azorean public radio that the process is going ahead in the same way. “It is, once again, a governmental, political and possibly ideological priority that will bring very little in the way of practical benefits. Except, eventually, the impression that something is being done,” he said.
“It’s a bad deal and structured in a bad way. There is no technical pre-qualification here. This is an option, it’s not obligatory, but it helps. There is no bidding basis, which is unhelpful. Above all, there is a great distance from the aeronautical reality here,” the expert warned that Azores Airlines is “important in the Azores, but it is neither preponderant nor relevant worldwide.”
He pointed out that “this greatly limits the interest in making that leap or that contribution to an aeronautical group.”
He said the best strategy is to rethink the business and put the company at the service of the Azores and the tourists who choose the archipelago. “At the moment, the route being taken is to turn Azores Airlines into a hub company without having the conditions or the economic interest to do so,” he warned.
The international public tender allows for the sale of 51% and 85% of Azores Airlines’ share capital. The Newtour/MS Aviation consortium offered 6.60 euros per share and the Atlantic Consortium 7.026 euros.
In a statement sent to the press yesterday, SATA announced that the group’s airlines exceeded 395 million euros in revenue last year.
“For the second year running, Azores Airlines had its best year ever in terms of passengers carried, with 1,445 thousand passengers carried (+33% compared to 2022), reaching 285.8 million euros in revenue (+35% vs. 2022),” the press release indicates.
“The positive EBITDA of 21.6 million euros, four times higher than in 2022, reflects the company’s continued good operating performance,” says the group.

in Diário Insular, José Lourenço-director