“In September 2026, 233,650 passengers disembarked at Azores airports—13,812 fewer than in the same month last year (-5.6%),” states the SREA report on air passenger traffic.

Since January, air passenger arrivals in the Azores have declined year on year.

Between January and September, the region recorded about 1.8 million passengers—136,898 fewer than in the same period of 2025—a 7.1% drop.

Almost half (49.4%) of the travellers disembarking in the region in September arrived on inter-island flights, totalling 115,360.

A total of 81,318 passengers arrived from the mainland and Madeira (so-called territorial flights), accounting for 34.8% of the total, while only 36,972 passengers (15.8%) disembarked from international flights.

Territorial flights

Territorial flights saw the largest year-on-year reduction (-12.4%), followed by international flights (-7%).

Conversely, inter-island flights saw a slight increase in disembarking passengers (+0.4%).

Of the nine islands in the Azores, only four recorded a year-on-year increase in disembarkations in September: Flores (8.2%), Graciosa (8%), Pico (5.9%), and Faial (1.5%). Corvo Island recorded the most significant drop (-13.3%), followed by São Miguel (-8.5%), São Jorge (-7.3%), Terceira (-5.7%), and Santa Maria (-1.2%).

With 132,833 passengers, the island of São Miguel—the largest in the archipelago—accounted for more than half (56.9%) of the region’s disembarkations, followed by the islands of Terceira with 46,115 (19.7%), Faial with 16,140 (6.9%), and Pico with 14,353 (6.1%).

As for travellers departing from Azores airports, the total reached 249,725 in September, down 13,147 (5%) from the same month the previous year.

In this instance, too, the decline was most pronounced in territorial flights (-11.4%), totalling 92,542 passengers, and in international flights (-5.3%), with 41,757 passengers.

On inter-island air routes, 115,426 people boarded flights, up 1% from September 2025.

At the end of March, the low-cost airline Ryanair ceased operations to the Azores, leaving TAP and Azores Airlines (part of the SATA Group) to serve air links between the archipelago and mainland Portugal exclusively.

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