Azores

I have always suggested for a first visit to the Azores that Sao Miguel can easily fill two weeks of a vacation. There are many potential issues that could complicate your trip if you decide to visit one or more islands in one week.

Last week some travelers were sleeping at airports due to flight cancellations and lack of hotel rooms. This is one example. This could also occur at any time of the year.

Hi Carl
Can you expand on the reasons flights got canceled. Is flying the best way to travel to and from the islands to the mainland? What about inter island transportation is flying still recommended?

THANKS

Thanks for the advice Carl, really appreciate your insight.

dacase90...

There were a few reason this happened. SATA/Azores Airlines will be labeled as SATA in my responses.

1. SATA cabin crews threatened to strike. This lead to potential schedule changes and cancellations and thousands of passengers rebooking flights. The strike was called off, so operations had to redo all the schedules and bookings, and bring operations back up to speed. This is no easy feat!
2. Ground handling at all Portugal airports threatened to strike. This lead to the same issues as #1.
3. One of the inter-island Q400 airplanes has been out for service and was replaced with a leased Q400. I believe SATA will add another Q400 to the fleet next year. This will be a huge improvement in the schedules.
4. One of the A321 airplanes had issues, requiring temporary short term leasing from a different company than #3.
5. Weather (the most common issue and what aggravated these current problems) issues developed, forcing the cancellation of flights. This is normal at any time of the year.
6. The current routes that the A321s fly are not all profitable and sustainable. SATA will discontinue the seasonal Bermuda flights in the near future. Aside from the North America and mainland Portugal routes, the others have never made sense to me for pricing and passenger load factors.
7. The current inter-island schedules have always had some downfalls, and this adds to the current situation above.
   

Any one of these aforementioned issues begins a "domino effect" of problems, that are not easy to fix in a timely manner.

There needs to be a company discussion regarding updating the inter-island airplanes that are definitely showing their age. Also, the current international routes need to be slimmed down to what makes money for the company. The new director has tried to make headway with cost cutting measures, but these take time to realize savings. He closed all SATA ticket offices in the Azores except those in the airports. Locals were not happy with this. Onboard food has taken a dive, among other noticeable in flight changes. He has a lot of work ahead of him.

There are lots of other issues that would take me a long time to write about, especially having family members and friends who have worked for SATA and Portugal air traffic control, and have given me the inside scoop of SATA operations for over 3 decades! Change is very slow. Common sense has always been in short supply!

Flying between the Azores and the mainland is the ONLY way you can travel. Only container ships and similar ships sail. You do have different airlines from which to choose, and plenty of flights.

The ferry system in the Azores is not as easy to use as expected. The ferry between Sao Miguel and Santa Maria (and all other islands) was discontinued years ago. In short, the best usage of ferries is between the islands of Pico, Faial, and Sao Jorge year-round, and then Corvo and Flores (seasonal, but I prefer a 7 minute flight). Sometimes there are ferries between Terceira and Graciosa. Trying to decipher the ferry schedules takes practice. A lot has to do with politics regarding the ferry routes. For me, In ALL other instance except between Pico, Faial, and Sao Jorge, just fly.

Please know that the webmaster wrote a sticky post at the top of this Portugal form, titled "Azores Islands Travel Advice-2024 Update". In it is a link to my digital, Azores guidebook, of which the first 52 pages (of a total of 533 pages) are totally free to read. Those free pages have just about all the answers to any question you can think of regarding visiting the Azores.

Otherwise, posting an Azores question here on the Portugal forum, or sending me a private message, will result in whatever advice and help I can offer.

:-)

Much appreciated in your detailed answer Carl.