Azores Airlines

Azores Airlines is a subsidiary of the SATA Group, licensed to operate flights outside the Azores connecting the archipelago to Europe and North America, from its hub at João Paulo II Airport. It resulted from the acquisition and transformation, in 1994, of the air taxi company Oceanair.

On 19 March 1998 its name was changed from Oceanair to SATA Internacional, and on 17 June the company obtained its Air Operator’s Certificate. It was licensed and certified in accordance with European Union regulations.

In 1995, after 50 years of inter-island flights, SATA began non-scheduled charter flights, using the Boeing 737-300 for national and foreign tour operators. Since January 2000, flights to the USA and Canada have been operated by SATA Internacional, which currently operates Airbus A321neo on these routes.

In 1999, SATA Internacional won the tender for air connections between Ponta Delgada and the mainland and to Funchal. In 2002, it once again won the tender for routes it had already been operating for three years. The following year it won the tender for the concession of these routes.

In October 2015, the company’s name was changed to Azores Airlines, in order to distinguish it from its parent company SATA Air Açores, which operates flights between the islands of the Azores.

In January 2021, an Airbus A321LR operating Azores Airlines flight S46865 won the record for the longest commercial A321LR flight in duration, which operated as a charter from Lisbon to Bogotá in a time of 9 hours and 49 minutes. [2] The airline surpassed the record previously set by Air Transat for its A321LR flight on 26 October 2020 from Montréal Trudeau to Athens with a duration of 8 hours and 20 minutes, but was later surpassed by TAP Air Portugal on 29 March 2021 with its A321LR flight from Maputo to Praia with a flight duration of 10 hours and 7 minutes.

Current fleet

As of October 2021, Azores Airlines operates the following aircraft in its all-Airbus fleet: