Azores Airlines Trimmed Its Half-Year Loss to 37.1 Million Euros, and Fuel Prices Alone Took Back 11.5 Million
Fuel costs rose 29 percent across the group. Azores Airlines flew 7.7 percent fewer flights and cancelled 249 of them, at an estimated cost of four million euros. SATA Air Acores cut its loss to 2.1 million, and SATA Handling reported 2.2 million in its first split-out accounts.
Azores Airlines lost 37.1 million euros in the first half of 2026, an improvement of about 3.9 million on the 41.1 million it lost in the same six months of 2025. SATA Air Açores, which flies between the islands, cut its loss to 2.1 million from 3.4 million. SATA Handling, reporting for the first time as a company separate from the group, posted a loss of 2.2 million and negative EBITDA of 1.8 million.
The figures, seen by the Lusa agency, come with an explanation the group repeats twice: the "significant rise in fuel prices" and "operational irregularities associated with adverse weather events". Fuel costs across the group rose 29 percent year on year. The price movement alone is put at around 11.5 million euros at Azores Airlines and 1.5 million at SATA Air Açores.
Where the money went
Azores Airlines took 134.4 million euros of operating revenue in the half, of which 81.2 million came from ticket sales, up 4.4 percent. Operating costs rose 4.8 percent to 142 million, and the company insists the increase is due "entirely" to fuel, which accounted for 40.6 million of that total. The net result was helped by a favourable movement in exchange differences.
Underneath the headline number, the operation shrank. The airline flew 5,037 flights, 7.7 percent fewer than a year earlier, and cancelled 249 of them, more than double the previous year's total, at an estimated cost of four million euros. Against that, it saved about 1.8 million on wet-leased aircraft flown under ACMI contracts, another 1.8 million on catering and roughly a million on the management of human resources.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were negative at 7.6 million euros, against a positive 300,000 in the first half of 2025. The company attributes the swing to fuel. SATA Air Açores held revenue and costs at 54.9 and 52.1 million euros respectively, and kept its EBITDA positive, 1.4 million higher than a year ago.
The number that matters for the sale
These are the last full half-year accounts before a buyer takes over. Azores Airlines is being privatised, and the regional government has said the airline will be handed over stripped of liabilities. The reference point is the full-year 2025 result published on 22 May: a loss of 53.9 million euros at Azores Airlines, itself 17.3 million better than 2024, and 6.4 million at SATA Air Açores.
Read against that, the first half of 2026 is a slower improvement than 2025 delivered, and the reason is a cost line no management team controls. A jet fuel bill that grew by nearly a third has absorbed most of what the airline saved elsewhere, and the cancellations added four million euros of pure loss on top.
What this means for expats
- Fares are unlikely to fall: ticket revenue rose 4.4 percent on 7.7 percent fewer flights, which is a thinner, dearer schedule rather than a growing one.
- The privatisation is the real story: the regional government opened the sale with a 75 percent minimum stake floor and a 30-month no-layoff clause.
- Connectivity has already thinned: five months after Ryanair left the Azores, the region is still arguing about what eleven years of that arrangement cost.
- Summer capacity did grow in one place: Azores Airlines added Lisbon flights to Faial and Pico for the season, one of the few schedule additions of the year.
- The regional budget is under its own strain: slower growth costs the Azores 20 million euros of VAT, which limits how much the region can absorb.
