Artur Lima, who spoke as president of the CDS-PP Azores, said yesterday in a statement to DI that “TAP treats the Azores better than SATA.”
The position of the vice-president of the regional government comes after reports in Diário dos Açores that Azores Airlines will end its loss-making routes, mostly on ACMI flights, citing sources “knowledgeable” about the process.
ACMI flights involve renting planes with crew, maintenance, and insurance.
The newspaper quotes SATA’s plan for summer 2025, which will be “practically closed.” Apart from Terceira-Oakland, the routes to be withdrawn will be London, Ponta Delgada-Bermuda, and the direct connections from Porto and Madeira to the United States and Canada.
Terceira-Oakland will be codeshare with TAP on the national airline’s direct flight between Terceira and San Francisco.
Artur Lima told DI that it was “false” that the Terceira-Oakland route had made a loss. “I categorically deny it,” he said.
“The other routes, SATA knows what it has been doing all these years and concentrating on the so-called Azores hub. This is purely the responsibility of SATA’s board of directors. It was warned in due course that they were making a loss,” he stressed.
“I really hope that, having ended the ACMI from Terceira (with Oakland), SATA will enter 2025 with a lot of profits, which was the flight that led SATA to a loss,” he joked.
He considered that “TAP has more consideration for the Azores than SATA.” He will ensure a direct link between Terceira and San Francisco, leaving “the Diaspora and the Azores better served.”

“The ACMIS that made a loss for Europe was the sole responsibility of SATA’s board of directors. This was the ACMI that made a profit. SATA is only doing away with it because TAP will do it, ” the centrist leader defended.
Asked if he would like to see a different attitude from SATA towards Terceira island, Artur Lima said this change is necessary for the whole archipelago. “This project is for the development of the Azores, nor is it for Terceira or São Miguel. I wouldn’t like to see an internal Azorean centralism on the part of those who criticize Lisbon’s centralism. I will never accept that: A centralism that isn’t even from São Miguel; it’s from Ponta Delgada. As president of the CDS, I don’t accept it, just as the president of the PSD and the president of the PPM don’t agree with it either,” said Artur Lima.
The CDS/PP Azores president is not afraid that his statements will cause discomfort within the PSD, CDS/PP, and PPM coalition government. “The CDS is part of the government in its own right and has not lost its thinking or its identity. When it feels it has to comment on a public company – and I, as president of the CDS, on governance – it has the right to do so,” he said.
He stressed that “between the coalition, led by the president of the PSD, José Manuel Bolieiro, there is solidarity and mutual respect.”
The CDS/PP parliamentary group is to move forward with a request to “clarify public opinion” about the loss-making routes Azores Airlines has developed, the CDS/PP Azores president told DI.
“SATA should exist, firstly, to serve the Azores, secondly, our Diaspora and, thirdly, to do what it can do,” he said.
Diário dos Açores quotes the chairman of SATA’s board of directors, who recently considered there had been “a lot of mismanagement” over many years in the group and assured that he wanted to “save” SATA.
Rui Coutinho admitted that he would “look at the loss-making routes and eliminate them in order to reduce costs.”
One of the guidelines for the group’s management will now be, according to Diário do Açores, “to consolidate and enhance the Azores hub.”

in Diário Insular – 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 Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.