According to a press release, Azores Airlines (a SATA group company operating flights from the Azores archipelago to international destinations) will "add approximately 5,000 seats to its operations to the Azores," and SATA Air Açores (the Azorean airline responsible for inter-island connections) will "reinforce the capacity of inter-island connections by approximately 3,500 seats."

“This reinforcement covers connections between mainland Portugal (Porto and Lisbon) and the Azores archipelago (Ponta Delgada, Santa Maria, Faial and Pico) and between the archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores, between December 8th and January 4th, with a greater incidence between December 20th and January 4th”.

The SATA group justifies the decision to reinforce operations during the Christmas and New Year period as stemming from “continuous monitoring of demand and sales prospects for this period, traditionally marked by a significant increase in passenger mobility, namely, students travelling abroad.”

The two airlines “remain attentive to the evolution of demand, adjusting capacity whenever this proves operationally viable and commercially justified,” it adds.

The note also states that, during the winter season, the two Azorean airlines together operate more than 400 weekly flights, “with the aim of serving the nine islands and ensuring accessibility to the Azores archipelago.”