The airline Azores Airlines had losses of 33.3 million euros until September, according to the statement from Grupo SATA, which highlights that there is an improvement of 5% compared to the first nine months of 2024.
In the third quarter alone, the company had profits of 7.8 million euros, above profits of 2.8 million euros in the same quarter of 2024.
In a statement, Grupo SATA said that the year 2025 “continues to be marked by high competitiveness in the airline sector, with the North American market more contained compared to recent years influenced by geopolitical factors” and that the company changed the routes operated in the third quarter, favoring domestic operations, which “resulted in an 11% drop in the number of passengers transported and impacted revenue by around 19%”.
Azores Airlines’ operating costs fell 27% to 89.4 million euros and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) improved 21% to reach 25 million euros by September.
As for SATA Air Açores, it had a “positive operational evolution”, according to the statement.
Until September, losses were 3.0 million euros, below the 8.2 million euros in the same period last year, while the third quarter produced profits of 396 thousand euros, below the 756 thousand euros in the third quarter of 2024. EBITDA improved from 2.6 million euros to 6.0 million euros until September.
SATA Gestão de Aeródromos had profits of 885 thousand euros until September and in the third quarter alone profits were 240 thousand euros. The group says that EBITDA was also positive until September.
In the statement, Grupo SATA considered that the positive evolution of the EBITDA of the three operating companies and the third quarter results are a reflection of the execution of the financial sustainability plan.
“The third quarter results, as well as the accumulated results, show that we are on the right path to financially balance the company, with a clear focus on cost control, reversing the trend of cost increases exceeding revenue. This has been one of the main objectives of the financial sustainability plan”, said the executive president, Rui Coutinho, quoted in a statement.
Lusa questioned Grupo SATA about the group’s consolidated results. Official source explained that they will only be released for the entire year 2025 as “it involves corrections and cancellations of movements between group companies”.
At the moment, the privatization process of Azores Airlines is underway. On November 24, the Atlantic Connect Group consortium presented a proposal of 17 million euros for 85% of the share capital of Azores Airlines, with the Government of the Azores asking the European Commission to extend the deadline for the company’s privatization until December 31, 2026.
The proposal is currently being analyzed by the competition jury, led by economist Augusto Mateus.