The Regional Secretary for Tourism and Transport announced today in Horta that, starting Monday, passengers travelling to destinations outside the Azores may acquire a transfer flight ticket at no cost to the departure airport.

Speaking during a debate at the Legislative Assembly, Vítor Fraga revealed that, from March 16, "any person can book a transfer flight at no cost at a SATA office, through SATA call centre or even at a travel agency; the latter option applies to the cases of airlines that are not covered by the interline agreement."

In the case of companies that have interline "agreements with SATA Air Azores, the transfer process will remain identical to the one that is currently in force. There will be no changes; patients are only required to prove their eligibility.

Vítor Fraga stressed that this measure will enter into force next Monday since "the resolution of the Council of the Government approving the direct awarding procedure for the provision of services from April to September was only published this week. SATA needs to have a legal framework to issue tickets at no cost," which did not happen under the Public Service Obligations in force until now.

As for transfer flights, the Secretary for Transport noted that passengers will no longer be required to depart from the nearest airport. In fact, they will have the possibility to choose the departure airport , even if there is a direct flight from the island where they live. Hence, passengers may choose a flight with fares or a service offer that best suit their needs.

Vítor Fraga stressed that the new model of accessibility to the Region "was designed based on the proposal submitted by the Regional Government, which sets down the following basic assumptions: ensure a single fare price to all Azoreans, from Santa Maria to Corvo, at a fair price that is also suited to accessibility costs, create the conditions for the entry of new operators in the market, improve the supply of flights, reduce accessibility costs and, consequently, improve levels of service quality."

The Regional Secretary also stressed that the websites of several air companies already show a significant price reduction.

If we analyse the flights scheduled in system for the next 365 days is made, we can notice "an overall increase in supply of flights by 40%, which clearly evidences the increased accessibility to the Region," said Vítor Fraga. In this context, the government official stressed that "if we look at the winter period from November to March, this increase is 74% higher than the current supply," thus meeting the goal towards to improve accessibility to the Azores and contributing to the increase of tourism flows and the mitigation of seasonality.

Vítor Fraga assured that, contrary to what was stated in the debate, the Government did not give SATA any indication to not sell tickets below 200 euros.

"It is not true. The Government did not give any indication to SATA. This would be totally illogical on the part of those who manage a company that is competing with other airlines," said the Regional Secretary.