This summer, Terceira will receive nine more air connections between the island and other countries. The announcement was made by CDS-PP MP Pedro Pinto in a political statement presented yesterday at a session of the regional Legislative Assembly.

The “changes introduced in the management of Lajes Airport” and the “strategic and operational changes achieved by the airline SATA” have made it possible for there to be “nine weekly connections to Porto, of which seven daily by Azores Airlines and two by Ryanair,” he said. The reinforcement of SATA and TAP connections to Lisbon will be a reality with the “overnight stay of TAP aircraft in Lajes” from June until October. In addition, “Terceira’s connections abroad will be maintained, namely to Boston, Toronto and Oakland,” said Pedro Pinto. The big news is the inauguration of connections between Lajes and JFK Airport in New York. According to Pedro Pinto, promoting Terceira Island and creating “conditions to increase the number of air connections” is one of the coalition government’s objectives.

For Andreia Cardoso, from PS, the development of Terceira Island “is based on strengthening its weight in tourism.” She believes it is essential to “establish and define a plan to combat seasonality.” The solution for the PS parliamentary group would be to reinforce low-cost flights in the low season, invest in attracting themed cruises, make the Port of Pipas operational, reinforce tourist guides, and hold national and international congresses and sporting events on the island. “We need to reverse the situation,” says Andreia Cardoso, and what has been done is not enough.

At the time, she accused the regional government of not supporting Folk Azores and the canoeing championship, which attracted around 300 athletes and 500 people. With a reply from Deputy Paulo Gomes, the PSD responded with figures. According to the Social Democrat, the number of overnight stays was 391,000 in 2019, and it rose to 487,000 in 2023. The number of embarked passengers rose from 362,000 to 471,000, respectively, and the number of disembarked passengers rose to 470,000 in 2023, compared to 319,000 in 2019.

The number of passengers embarking and disembarking “doesn’t correspond to the number of overnight stays,” said Nuno Barata, a member of parliament from IL. He says that what is really important are overnight stays and the growth in gross added value.

The regional secretary for Tourism, Mobility and Infrastructure, Berta Cabral, says that what needs to be done now is “success management”. She says that, at the moment, tourism “is the most dynamic sector of regional activity.”

“Terceira’s tourism is not taking off; it’s growing, but it’s starting from a shallow base left by the PS regional government,” said Berta Cabral. As for the Folk Azores festival, she blamed the PS MP for incoherence. “Don’t come and say that Folk is having problems with travel when you talked about seasonality before. If you want to combat seasonality, move the festival to the winter and it can be held indoors,” said the Secretary for Tourism, Mobility and Infrastructure. She also explained that support for events such as canoeing “is planned, but cannot be paid because they voted against the regional budget.”

PRIVATIZATION OF SATA INTERNACIONAL

Left Bloc MP António Lima accused the regional government of “lame” excuses for not submitting SATA’s restructuring plan to the regional parliament. Taking a stance against privatization, the Deputy fears that it could “mean the end of SATA International”.

According to the bloc, the tender jury presented a final report on the privatization process at the beginning of April this year. They highlighted their reservations about the capacity of the only competing consortium. “In the bid specifications, the positive score starts at 25 and the maximum score is 100. The score we gave the current bid is 46.69. You can see that 46.69 is closer to 25 than to 100. It’s not a very significant score. We draw attention to that,” said the chairman of the jury, quoted by BE.

The regional finance secretary guarantees that the report is not yet in the possession of the regional government. He didn’t express any opinions on the privatization of the airline. He accused the BE of being against the private sector, the European Union and NATO

Following the resignation of the Chairwoman of SATA’s Board of Directors, Duarte Freitas said that the “Regional Government will be here to accompany the current board until the end of its functions and, of course, will be attentive to recompose the various governing bodies of the various companies in the SATA group”. In his speech, he also clarified that Teresa Gonçalves and the workers of the SATA group did not meet yesterday.

in Diário Insualr–José Lourenço, director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Cultures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance)  at California State University, Fresno–PBBI thanks the sponsorship of the Luso-American Development Foundation from Lisbon, Portugal (FLAD)