The regional secretary for Tourism, Mobility, and Infrastructures said that the study on extending the runway at Pico airport by another 700 meters concluded that the intervention would deal with more operational obstacles than currently exist. The Pico Airport Group and the PS have already requested that the document be released in full.
“The study has already been delivered. There are three large volumes, but basically it says the following: extending the runway, as proposed, will encounter greater obstacles than it does today. Therefore, there is no point in extending the runway for the purpose that was part of the study,” said Berta Cabral, the head of the Mobility portfolio, in a statement to journalists.
Last week, the Pico Airport Group (GAPix) had already warned of the delay in releasing the study, pointing out that the regional secretary had promised to present it by the end of the first semester.


Questioned by journalists in Ponta Delgada, Berta Cabral said that the executive will “request a complementary study” to “accurately understand” the possibilities of extending the runway.
“This now requires a great deal of reflection on the study that has been presented to us because, (…) politically, we have to decide what we want, because either it brings advantages or it’s not worth investing in,” she explained.
According to the minister, one of the alternatives to expansion, suggested in the study, involves changing the alignment of the runway, which implies “an almost new airport.”
“I’m not taking any position, because that position will be taken politically after properly evaluating the alternatives. If we’re going to change the alignment of the runway and make an inflection, we’re talking about very large investments,” he said.

Incongruity
In reaction, the Pico Airport Group said it was “surprised” by the regional secretary’s statements, which were made “without public knowledge and in full of the results of the study.”
The group points to an “incongruity” between what the head of the Mobility portfolio revealed and the opinion of the SATA group given to the Economy Committee of the Azorean parliament in October 2021 regarding the possibility of extending the runway by 700 meters.
“Without knowledge of the assumptions of the previous study, the respective scenarios considered, the methodologies used and the conclusions drawn, GAPix cannot at this stage issue any duly substantiated opinion, which has been our guiding principle throughout our existence. That said, we urge the Secretary to publicly disclose the full preliminary study for the Pico Airport Runway Extension, as well as explaining the purpose of the announced complementary study,” she said in a press release.

Study released
The Socialist Party also requested a copy of the complete preliminary study in a request signed by the party’s two MPs elected from Pico.
The Socialists want to know “what the government’s guidelines are and the new assumptions underlying the request for a new complementary study.”
“We don’t know the study at the moment, only the statements made by the Regional Secretary for Tourism, Mobility and Infrastructure, Berta Cabral, who said that it was an extensive study, but that, according to her words, ‘there’s no point in extending the runway’. We want to have access to this study, so that we can also judge whether, in fact, this is the case,” explained Mário Tomé.
Parliamentary member Marta Matos recalled that the decision to extend the runway by 700 meters was based on previous studies and was the subject of a draft resolution presented by the PS in 2021, which was unanimously approved by the Legislative Assembly.
“Pico residents can’t be treated this way by the regional government of the PSD/CDS/PPM coalition, which before the regional elections gives the impression that it wants to move forward on this and other issues and, after the elections, comes up with studies that seem to indicate that nothing will be done. These studies are also paid for by the Azoreans, which is why they should be made public in full,” he said.

in Diário Insular–José Lourenço-director

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