Rui Coutinho has emphasized that it can be easily verified on the official statistics page of the Azorean Regional Statistics Service (SREA) that there has been no reduction in flights.
“Quite the opposite. Azores Airlines and SATA Air Açores have consistently increased flight offerings on domestic routes to the Azorean archipelago,” he stressed.
The CEO of CTT, João Bento, held the air transport between the continent and the Azores responsible for 25% of the year being “significantly below the contracted capacity” for mail dispatch.
João Bento stated that, on “25% of the days of the year, there was no contracted capacity with the airlines,” adding that this “difficulty was greatly exacerbated by recent SATA decisions” related to the “change in the number of flights” and “service times” for dispatching CTT cargo.
The Azorean airline notes that the flight cancellations mentioned, “mostly due to weather conditions, cannot reasonably be attributed to the responsibilities of the carriers operating in the Azorean archipelago.”
The company points out that recent tariff changes “allow SATA not to internalize third-party costs, as has been happening since the year 2000,” which is “a necessary management principle for the sustainability of the carriers.”
“The SATA group prioritizes serving Azoreans by promoting their mobility and providing essential services for their daily lives. Therefore, we repudiate the statements made by the CEO of CTT regarding mail transport in the Azores and the accusations made specifically against SATA on this subject,” declared Rui Coutinho.
