SATA passenger numbers in January up 81% YoY, near pre-pandemic level

The number of passengers carried by airlines in the Azores-based group SATA in January was up 81% from a year earlier, coming close to pre-pandemic levels, the company revealed today.

In a statement, the company announced that SATA Air Açores and Azores Airlines traffic growth was “split relatively consistently across both airlines” and that “with these levels of growth, pre-pandemic carried passenger numbers are already within striking distance.”

It stressed that the growth in traffic and passenger numbers “was also accompanied by a new punctuality record” for flights.

“SATA Air Açores and Azores Airlines achieved an average punctuality rate in January 2022 of 93%, six percentage points above the 87% of 2021,” it states, adding that this contributes “to the affirmation of the strategy of consolidating an air operation of excellence that serves passengers and, at the same time, minimises the cost structure for the companies.”

SATA Group airlines carried 97,000 passengers in December 2021, or 3,471 more than its best December ever, in 2007, the operator announced at the end of last year. In a news release, the group recalled that “already in October 2021, the SATA group airlines – SATA Air Açores and Azores Airlines – had reached an all-time record in the number of passengers carried.”

According to SATA, the “feat was recorded again in December 2021, as the airlines reached the end of the month with more than 97,000 passengers carried, an increase of 3,471 passengers when compared to 2007, a year in which December was highlighted as having been, to date, the best ever in history in terms of the number of passengers carried.”

Compared with December 2020, passenger numbers were up 92.4%.

Azores Airlines operates to and from outside the archipelago, including to and from mainland Portugal, while SATA Air Açores makes inter-island connections.