"The operation is contributing, with capital, to the entire activity and that is very healthy", stressed Luís Rodrigues, without specifying numbers, after an information session, with questions and answers, which lasted about an hour and a half, in the delegation of the Regional Parliament, in Ponta Delgada.

Although the restructuring plan has not yet been validated by the European Commission, which is expected to happen by the end of the year, and SATA has recorded a loss of 45 million euros in the first half of the year (greater than in the same period of 2020), the board of directors dismisses the situation and associates it with the effects of the pandemic. In fact, the SATA group has been recovering since last summer. According to Luís Rodrigues, this case “must be unique in the world”. "We are flying now, at the end of 2021, with the same number of passengers we did in 2019; the rest of Europe is taking 40 percent fewer passengers", he added, noting that "all airline companies in the world, in the first semester, faced losses. The pandemic ended in the first half of 2021, there is no need to avoid the issue. It would have been a miracle – and miracles do not exist – if the company had made a profit”, he added.

Luís Rodrigues points out that the prospects for next year are “extremely positive” for SATA. This means “continuing to grow, if there are no unpredictable situations", for example, related to the pandemic and fuels. In reality, “the results are promising, so we can continue the work that has been done, which I think is going very well”.

Although SATA does not depend on Brussels to continue executing its restructuring plan, there is, for now, one consequence resulting from the delay in its approval: the payment of interest over time. “The longer it takes, the more interest we are going to pay; therefore, this is a debt no one would like to have, but right now it is not up to us to have this plan approved”, he stressed.

By the end of the year, SATA is expected to record a loss of 50 million euros, compared to 88 million euros in 2020.

“There may be other solutions in addition to capital increase”
The impossibility of injecting 133 million euros into SATA, as a result of the State Budget non-approval, is not a finished subject and there may be other solutions.

"All possible solutions are open and, in due course, in this framework of contacts with the European Commission, there might be other solutions, in addition to capital increase", stated the President of the Regional Government, who also attended the information session of the Chairman of the SATA Board of Directors.

José Manuel Bolieiro made it clear that the Azorean airline provides a "very relevant and indispensable" service to the Azores while emphasizing the importance of its management being "professional" and "competent. "It is important to ensure that professional, competent and independent management allows for the solvency of the business and, therefore, the company, so that it is not painful for taxpayers, since the Region is the shareholder", stressed José Manuel Bolieiro, adding that this restructuring plan is also “an opportunity to correct past mistakes”.

The President of the Regional Government also devalued the 45 million euros loss presented by the company in the first half of 2021. “The whole world of aviation, in view of these pandemic years, faced the same difficulties. What matters is whether a professional, competent, independent management, without political interference, can ensure a viable business, considering the strategic importance that the company has for the Azores”, he reiterated.

The political parties supporting the government are confident about SATA's recovery, with greater reservations shown by the opposition and even by Iniciativa Liberal, Chega and the independent MP, who have parliamentary agreements signed with PSD and the coalition.