Group chairman Tiago Santos says direct-sale model is more transparent and less bureaucratic, while defending the future of the airline and acknowledging that the handling operation is no longer an obvious asset for privatization
The SATA Group expects to receive between six and eight expressions of interest in the acquisition of Azores Airlines as the regional aviation company moves forward with a new attempt to privatize its international carrier.
Tiago Santos, chairman of SATA’s Board of Directors, said the non-binding proposals are expected by September 6, with the deadline for the submission of expressions of interest set for September 21.
Speaking in an interview with RTP/Açores, Santos said several potential investors have already expressed interest in the process. Those expressions of interest will subsequently be evaluated on the basis of financial capacity and suitability before the privatization moves to its next stage.
For the SATA chairman, the direct-sale model now being pursued offers advantages over the previous privatization attempt, which ultimately failed to produce a completed transaction. He described the present approach as transparent and competitive, arguing that it allows all interested parties to participate while creating a considerably less bureaucratic process.
The experience of the earlier attempt, he suggested, has also provided lessons for the company and for those responsible for navigating what remains one of the most consequential economic decisions facing the Azores.
Santos also addressed the concerns of SATA employees, stressing that the future of Azores Airlines matters not only to the company and the Regional Government, but also to the people whose professional lives are directly tied to the carrier. He recalled that in 2025 the SNPVAC, representing civil aviation flight personnel, and SPAC, representing civil aviation pilots, were both successful in reaching collective bargaining agreements.
The privatization takes place against the larger background of SATA’s restructuring process and the commitments negotiated with the European Commission. According to Santos, the restructuring plan requires the handling operation to be privatized, as well as Azores Airlines.
He acknowledged, however, that the sale of handling is no longer as self-evident as it may once have appeared. Santos argued that when European authorities approved measures in 2022, those decisions helped preserve the SATA Group and established privatization of handling as part of the negotiated restructuring package. The circumstances surrounding that operation, however, continue to generate debate among workers.
That debate was reflected in criticism from the SATA Air Açores and Azores Airlines workers’ committees. Dário Ponte, president of the SATA Air Açores Workers’ Committee, questioned the consistency of the position regarding handling, while Sandra Lemos, who heads the Azores Airlines Workers’ Committee, argued that the company agreement should be negotiated before the identity of the prospective buyer is known.
Lemos also recalled that, during the previous privatization process, there had been interest from the Antena 1/Açores consortium, which presented a private-sector proposal for acquiring the airline. Her concern now centers on protecting workers before ownership changes hands and before uncertainty becomes part of the negotiating process.
For SATA, the stakes extend well beyond the balance sheet. Born from the geographical necessities of an archipelago, the airline has long occupied a singular place in Azorean life: it is at once a company, a transportation network and an instrument connecting islands separated by the Atlantic from one another and from the wider world.
That history makes the privatization of Azores Airlines more than an ordinary corporate transaction. The central question is not simply who may be willing to buy the carrier, but what kind of airline will emerge from the process, what guarantees will remain for its workers and how its future will continue to serve a region for which air connectivity is not a luxury but an essential condition of modern island life.
With as many as eight potential interested parties expected to enter the process, the coming weeks may begin to answer the financial question. The larger question—what place Azores Airlines will occupy in the future of the Azores—will take considerably longer to resolve.
Based on a story in Diário Insular–Photos from Azores Airlines Facebook page