SATA Invites All Five Remaining Bidders to Make Binding Offers for Azores Airlines by 9 December, and Still Will Not Say Who They Are

SATA Holding, the publicly owned parent of the Azores airline group, has invited all five candidates still in the race for Azores Airlines to submit binding offers by 9 December. It still has not said who they are. The names, the company said on Wednesday 14 October, will be made public only when the binding offers are in, alongside the list of candidates that go through to the final stage.

"The five candidates that had made non-binding offers for the privatisation of Azores Airlines have been invited by SATA Holding to submit, by 9 December, binding offers," the group said in a statement sent to the Lusa news agency and reported by Notícias ao Minuto, ECO, RTP and Jornal de Negócios. The decision, it said, "was taken after the conclusion of the analysis of the proposals sent by the candidates".

Binding offers must be made "under the terms and conditions defined in the Caderno de Encargos" (the tender specifications) for the sale, which covers at least 75 percent of the airline, formally SATA Internacional. "On that occasion, SATA Holding will disclose the names of the candidates that will pass to the final phase of the privatisation process," the statement added.

Eight, then six, then five

The field has narrowed at each step. SATA Holding said on 8 September that it had received eight expressions of interest by the 6 September deadline, each with a fitness and compliance form, a declaration of financial capacity and a declaration of beneficial ownership. On 16 September it reported that six of the eight met the participation requirements and invited them to make non-binding offers by 21 September. On 22 September it announced that five non-binding offers had arrived. One qualified party therefore did not bid. Wednesday's decision keeps all five in play.

A December deadline set in Brussels

The sale is not optional. In June 2022 the European Commission approved 453.25 million euros of restructuring aid for the SATA group, on conditions that included selling a controlling 51 percent stake in Azores Airlines and carving out and selling the ground handling business. In January 2026, at Portugal's request, the Commission extended the deadline for both sales to 31 December 2026. In return, Portugal offered to reduce the aid amount correspondingly and to keep the competition safeguards in place until the sales are complete.

A binding-offer deadline of 9 December leaves about three weeks before that date. Lusa notes that, under the restructuring plan approved in Brussels, the sale has to be concluded by the end of the year. The specifications also allow for an "eventual final negotiation phase" after the binding round.

This is the second attempt. A first public tender, which allowed a sale of 51 to 85 percent, was closed on 6 March without a buyer after the jury and SATA's board judged that the only admitted bid, from the Atlantic Connect Group, carried "unacceptable risks", Lusa reported. The regional government then switched to a private negotiation, with the economist Augusto Mateus as independent supervisor, and set the new floor at 75 percent, as we reported in May.

How the bids will be judged

According to the specifications as reported by Lusa, the criteria include the price offered for the shares, a commitment to strengthen the airline's finances, the absence of legal or economic conditions attached to the bid, a guarantee that labour commitments will be respected, and "shareholder stability" through a governance model that takes account of "the specific nature" of Azores Airlines. A strategic plan that reinforces the Azores hub, through links to the mainland and the diaspora and connection with SATA Air Açores, the group's inter-island carrier, also counts.

What it means for passengers

Nothing in Wednesday's statement changes current flights or bookings. The longer-term protections sit in the specifications. The version SATA's board put to the Governo Regional dos Açores (Azores Regional Government) in May, seen by Lusa, obliges the buyer for at least 30 months to keep the airline's head office and effective management in the Azores, to keep the routes from São Miguel and Terceira to Lisbon and Porto, and to keep the links between the region and the United States and Canada, which carry much of the Azorean diaspora's traffic. The buyer would also have to keep the airline's air operator certificate for at least three years, and could make no collective dismissals or cut existing jobs for 30 months.

The more immediate disruption is on the ground. Handling staff represented by the SITAVA and SINTAC unions have called strikes at Azores airports from 21 October to 3 November in protest at the full sale of SATA Handling, the other divestment Brussels requires. The SATA group has activated a contingency plan: the stoppages run from 07:30 to 10:30 between 21 and 27 October and from 16:00 to 19:00 between 28 October and 3 November. Passengers booked on SATA Air Açores or Azores Airlines in that window can move to a flight between 18 October and 10 November outside the strike period with no change fee or fare difference. The airline also advises travelling with carry-on baggage only where possible and checking in online.