The Vice-President of the PS/Azores Parliamentary Group, Carlos Silva, yesterday accused the PSD/CDS-PP/PPM Regional Government of destroying SATA Air Açores, which has seen its debt increase by 66 million euros in 2024.

“This government created a new company – SATA Holding – to separate SATA Air Açores from Azores Airlines and thus eliminate the financial contamination between the two. However, it continues to use SATA Air Açores to take on new debt and lend to Azores Airlines,“ he said, quoted in a press release, stressing that the new company, created in January 2023, ”already has 300 million euros of negative equity.”

Carlos Silva explained that “SATA Air Açores is mortgaging possible future revenues from financial rebalancing that has not yet been approved in order to take on 35 million euros in debt in 2025, with an interest rate of 5.5%”. The Socialists’ reaction came when the SATA Group’s Annual Report for 2024 was released.

For the PS/Azores MP, the SATA Group’s Annual Report for 2024 also proves that the Regional Government is not saving the company, but drastically increasing its difficulties.

“The SATA Group’s accounts for 2024, published now, more than a month and a half late, reveal that José Manuel Bolieiro’s regional government continues to accumulate debt for the airline, putting its survival at risk,” he stressed.

The socialist also denounced the lack of transparency, the illegality in the publication of the accounts, and what he calls “chico-espertice”: their publication in the middle of August, when people’s attention is naturally more dispersed.

Furthermore, the Socialist stressed, “the result of the accounts for the first quarter of 2025, which should also have been made public, remains to be seen”.

The Vice-President of the Socialist Parliamentary Group warned of “the urgency of finding solutions to stop the financial and operational debacle to which this government has led SATA, despite having benefited from a restructuring plan approved by Brussels and a capital injection of more than 400 million euros from the European Commission”.

In the same note, the Socialists point out that, in 2024, the SATA Group companies as a whole posted a record loss of 83 million euros.

In Correio dos Açores-Natalino Viveiros, 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.