Gallery: A Bird's Eye View of the Azores

Evening arrival of Azores Airlines flight S4 124 from Lisbon at the carrier’s main hub, Ponta Delgada, which is located on the island of São Miguel. A slight rain shower welcomes the Airbus A321neo and its full load of passengers in front of the terminal.

Flightline at Ponta Delgada airport. The morning hours are very busy when Azores Airlines flights arrive from New York, Toronto and Boston, as well from the Portuguese mainland. Also, inter-islands flights between all nine islands begin daily operations. The airport handles around 2.5 million passengers annually.

CEO SATA Air Açores Group Teresa Goncalves said SATA Group transported around 2.5 million passengers—1.4 million on international routes and almost 1 million domestically—in 2023. José Manuel Bolieiro, President of the Regional Government of the Azores, said the strength of the islands’ regions, the global positioning and the development of the economy of the Azores, depends heavily on air transport. Around 246,000 people live on the Azores islands.

SATA Air Açores, the regional carrier, operates a fleet of five De Havilland Dash 8 Q400s and two Dash 8 Q200s. This aircraft type undergoes heavy base maintenance in the company’s hangar in Ponta Delgada. It is also the first 40,000 cycle maintenance work for SATA on this aircraft type.

SATA Air Açores, the regional carrier, operates a fleet of five De Havilland Dash 8 Q400s and two Dash 8 Q200s. This aircraft type undergoes heavy base maintenance in the company’s hangar in Ponta Delgada. It is also the first 40,000 cycle maintenance work for SATA on this aircraft type.

Sergio Reis Silva, director of maintenance at SATA, explained that turboprop aircraft are getting older but as flying increases, more work is created. For example, total MRO work in 2023 increased 15% to 20% compared to the year before, including the Airbus fleet. “For our Dash heavy base maintenance, we are completely autonomous here at the Azores,” he said.

In 2023, SATA Group’s two Dash 8 Q200s and five Q400s operated a total of 19,401 cycles and 14,705 flying hours. As the aircraft fly relatively short sectors, the shortest flight is between the islands of Corvo and Flores, which takes around 7 minutes, this creates not only stress on the airframe but also on the tires. The Dash fleet needed 569 tires in 2023. Each tire can be used three times, thanks to refurbishing before a tire has to be phased out.

Nuno Silveira, Head of the Operations Control Center, demonstrates where aircraft are currently operating throughout the network. As weather is a main challenge in the Atlantic region, current weather conditions are checked every 30 minutes. Sixteen employees are on duty for daily operations. “The best security is always to be one step ahead,” Silveira said.

View from a Dash 8 Q400 cockpit leaving Ponta Delgada to Pico Island.

Captain Filipe Pavao, who has been with Air Acores for 20 years, is in command of a Q400 operating a flight to Pico Island. “What we do here is really flying—a little bit of everything in aviation,” he said. Pavao has around 8,000 flight hours, with 12,000 landings. “Every day is different here.”

The Pico Islands airport offers a 1.745 meter-long runway, which also allows Airbus A320 operations to Lisbon. However, depending on weather conditions, payload restrictions can be implemented. Strong cross winds are more or less standard here.

It takes only 23 minutes flying time from Pico to Terceira. The picture demonstrates the approach to Terceira Lajes airfield, which remains an important support for the US military operations and is an important airport for civil aviation.  About 1 million passengers will be handled annually. Also, the Portuguese Air Force have a presence at the airfield.

Captain Miguel Moniz (left) and First Officer Tiago Gandum completed their work for the day after five legs, connecting Ponta Delgada with Terceira, then with Graciosa Island, back to Terceira, onward to Pico, and finally back to Terceira. 

Passengers in Terceira board the Q400 for the next sector to Ponta Delgada.

A lot of visual approaches and takeoffs will be carried out at the Azores; here the plan is for Runway 30 in Ponta Delgada. According to FAA, a visual approach is an ATC authorization for an aircraft on an IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) flight plan to proceed visually and clear of clouds to the airport of intended landing. A visual approach is not a standard instrument approach procedure and has no missed approach segments.
 

Flying between the Azores islands is also a kind of sightseeing. Here a closer look of “Lagoa Azul” on the island of São Miguel.

The runway of São Jorge Airport in the distance looking out the cockpit. Captain Filipe Pavao describes landing procedures there as very tricky, also during good weather conditions.
 

An Airbus A321neo (CS-TSG) awaits its passengers for another flight to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, one of its most important connections. Azores Airlines utilizes two A320s, two A321neos and three A321neoLRs. Its first A320neo was expected to enter services as of this writing. A second A320neo is expected in the first quarter of 2024, which should replace the current A320ceo fleet. With the delivery of an A321XLR, Azores Airlines will also be an all A320neo-family operator.

Captain Ágata Braganca, who has worked for SATA for 20 years. “It is my family,“ she told ATW in the cockpit en route from Ponta Delgada to Lisbon. Braganca also became an A320 fleet chief in January, supervises the 140 Airbus pilots of Azores Airlines as well as the day-to-day operations.

The weather is changing. “We always had some thunderstorms in the Acores, but [they are] coming more and more often,” Captain Braganca said. “We also see this throughout the Atlantic. We notice the weather on the Atlantic on our routes is becoming tougher and we are seeing lots and lots of thunderstorms; this is probably the climate change that we are experiencing. We’ve always had bad weather, of course, but we see the weather phenomenon is becoming more extreme, more violent. I think the Acores have been influenced by these changes,“ she said.
 

Approaching Lisbon Airport with an excellent view from the A321neo flight deck.