“Let’s put aside useless accusations and party quarrels. It’s time for us to sit down – PS and Government [Regional] -, to save our SATA, our mobility and its workers, before it’s too late,” wrote Francisco César on Facebook.
The stance of the Azorean socialist leader came after it was revealed that the two airlines of the SATA group, Azores Airlines and Sata Air Açores, closed 2024 with an accumulated loss of 82.8 million euros, more than double the previous year, according to data released by the company.
In a statement, SATA announced that last year, Sata Internacional – Azores Airlines (which operates connections to and from outside the archipelago) reported a negative net result of 71.2 million euros, compared to a loss of 26.08 million euros in 2023.
Meanwhile, Sata Air Açores (responsible for inter-island connections) reported a negative net result of 11.6 million euros in 2024, against a 9.97 million euro loss the previous year.
The accumulated loss of the two companies thus amounted to 82.8 million euros last year, more than double the 36 million reported in 2023.
In the post, Francisco César stated there has been a “real operational chaos at Sata Air Açores and Azores Airlines” and that the group’s restructuring failed.
“In the last five years, the situation has worsened significantly. No one in good faith, in light of the facts, can say otherwise. We are not interested in deriving political benefits from this. That is a pointless discussion and not how politics should be conducted. We want to help,” he stated.
The Azorean PS also issued a statement on the matter, in which the vice-president of the parliamentary group stated that the losses of the SATA group “reflect the complete failure of the restructuring plan initiated in 2021 and confirm the failure of José Manuel Bolieiro’s governance.”
According to Carlos Silva, as cited in the note, the losses now disclosed “demonstrate the financial difficulties the group faces and the inability to meet the challenges Azoreans encounter in terms of mobility.”
“We are talking about one of the largest losses ever, almost comparable to those recorded during the pandemic when aircraft were grounded,” he added.
The socialist stated that the choices made in the last four years by the Regional Government “dragged the SATA group to a worse financial situation than that recorded in 2020, exacerbated by the squandering of a restructuring plan worth 453 million euros.”
In light of the results, the PS “demands explanations and accountability from José Manuel Bolieiro, who has promoted instability within the SATA group and has dragged the region into a ruinous financial situation, the cost of which falls on the Azoreans.”
“Therefore, it is inevitable that the Bolieiro government accepts the challenge from PS/Açores to jointly find urgent solutions that effectively save SATA,” concluded Carlos Silva.
With the aim of improving the group’s “financial and economic performance,” “particularly for Azores Airlines,” the Board of Directors of SATA states it is implementing the Financial Sustainability Plan developed by the group’s management teams.
“We are convinced that the year 2024 was, for various reasons, a year of inflection and that 2025 will certainly be a turning point. The improvement in results achieved in the first months of 2025 indicates that we are on the right path,” states the CEO of the group, Rui Coutinho, cited in the statement.
