The President of the Government ensured in Vila do Porto that concrete evidence show that Santa Maria Airport maintains its competitiveness for technical stopovers, even after the entry into force of the measures comprised the Economic Revitalisation Plan for Terceira Island (PREIT).

"Even under PREIT, no airport fee at Lajes Airport is lower than those in force at Santa Maria Airport," said Vasco Cordeiro after receiving in audience the Island Council of Santa Maria.

Speaking to journalists, the President of the Government stressed that if we analyse technical stopovers in terms of fees, we realise that, in the vast majority of cases, the competitiveness of the Santa Maria Airport "was not affected by the measures covered by PREIT".

In fact, statistical data indicate that the technical stopovers at Santa Maria Airport grew 8.9 percent between 2013 and 2014, which represents an increase from 558 to 608 stopovers.

The same data indicate that even after the entry into force of the measures for Lajes Airport, there were 65 technical stopovers on Santa Maria in March this year, compared to 43 registered in the same month of 2014. This represents an increase of about 50 percent.
 
According to Vasco Cordeiro, the Azorean Government was careful enough to define measures for the island of Terceira, following the announced reduction of U.S. military forces and civil personnel at Lajes Air Base, "without anything from other islands."

"This balance remains and was safeguarded," Vasco Cordeiro, said, stressing that the commitment taken by the Government of the Azores to do everything within its reach so that the potential of Santa Maria Airport may continue to be fulfilled in other areas.

According to him, there are some recently adopted measures that clearly evidence this commitment, such as the Azores Aviation Centre. It has contributed to economy of Santa Maria with over 10 thousand overnight stays. The other investments include the maintenance of Santa Maria gateway under the new air transport model for the Region, which now receives twice the number of weekly flights to Mainland Portugal.