Azores Airlines’ Top 5 US-Bound Routes By Available Seat Miles

Azores Airlines connects the Azores Archipelago with many destinations in Europe, Africa, and North America. It also operates direct flights from Porto in Northern Portugal to the US and from the island of Madeira. Its most frequent route overall is from the Azores to Lisbon, Portugal, but there are many US-bound operations now.

Direct flights from the European mainland are only just starting (they were announced in 2023), but they are already looking promising for the airline. This article looks at Azores Airlines’ top five routes (by available seat miles for July 2024), with Porto flights already occupying fourth place. Data here is taken from Cirium, an aviation analytics company.

1

Ponta Delgada (PDL) to Boston (BOS)

Top place with 20,333,550 Available Seat Miles (ASMs)

The regular scheduled flights from Ponta Delgada in the Azores to the US east coast have long been a main operation for the airline.

During the summer schedule, there are 10 return flights per week between Boston and Ponta Delgada (just beating New York for capacity). These are operated by the airlines with its A321neo fleet.

Photo: Vitor Miranda | Shutterstock

These operate according to the following schedule.

From Ponta Delgada:

• Tuesday to Sunday: departure 17:55, arrival 19:35
• Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays: departure 08:35, arrival 10:20

From Boston:

• Tuesday to Sunday: departure 21:00, arrival 06:00 next day
• Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays: departure 11:35, arrival 20:40

2

Ponta Delgada (PDL) to New York (JFK)

Second place with 14,753,890 Available Seat Miles (ASMs)

The east coast route to New York JFK comes in behind Boston. There are 31 scheduled departures over the month, compared with 48 for Boston.

Photo: JJFarq | Shutterstock

These operate according to the following schedule.

From Ponta Delgada:

• Daily: departure 17:30, arrival 19:35

From New York:

• Daily: departure 20:55, arrival 06:50 next day

3

Terceira Airport (TER) to Oakland (OAK)

Third place with 7,335,965 Available Seat Miles (ASMs)

Moving away from the flagship Azores to Boston and New York routes, the next busiest route takes a big step down. Oakland on the US west coast to Terceira Airport (TER) offers around half the ASMs of these two bigger routes.

TER is the second-biggest airport in the Azores and is often used for international connections, which explains the high volume on this route.

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OAK to TER is the airline’s longest flight. You may have noticed that this exceeds the range of the airline’s Airbus A321LR aircraft. The route is operated once a week during the summer months using an Airbus A330, leased from Spanish airline Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas.

4

Porto (OPO) to Boston (BOS)

Fourth place with 4,198,575 Available Seat Miles (ASMs)

Moving away from mainland Azores flights, Porto (OPO) to Boston (BOS) is one of a new series of direct routes from Porto in northern Portugal to North America (with no stop in the Azores). Porto is Portugal’s second-most populous city. In July 2024, it had already reached fourth place for ASMs with the airline.

These routes were announced in 2023 and commenced in June 2024. Three routes are operated between Porto (OPO) and Boston (BOS), New York (JFK), and Toronto (YYZ). They are being served by a Boeing 767 operated by EUROATLANTIC Airways (this is the same operator used for direct flights from Madeira to North America).

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The expansion to Northern Portugal comes shortly after the carrier launched flights to Madeira and the SATA Group celebrated its 77th birthday.

These are all daytime flights – rare on these routes. All routes operate weekly, but in July the Boston route managed to record more available seats.

Speaking about the route launch from Porto, Graça Silva, Director of Sales, Marketing, and Communication at SATA Group, said:

“This direct air operation reinforces the offer of flights departing from Porto and North America, destinations to which Azores Airlines has been flying for more than two decades and where it has consistently grown,

“We believe that the city of Porto and the entire Northern Region have uniquely attractive arguments for the tourist segment, but equally important for the business and friends & relatives’ segments”

Photo: GCMap.com

Interestingly, the Boston route is the only one of the three new routes that will have no direct competition. New York (Newark but not JFK) is served from Porto with two daily flights from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) with United Airlines and a third daily connection on Portuguese flag carrier TAP Air Portugal. Toronto is currently served by Air Transat four times a week.

5

Funchal, Madeira (FNC) to Boston (BOS)

New route takes fifth place with 4,005,000 Available Seat Miles (ASMs)

The airline has long served New York JFK with direct flights to/from Madeira’s Funchal Airport. For the summer 2024 schedule, it has added flights to Boston and Toronto. These are operated (like the Porto flights) with a leased Boeing 767 widebody aircraft.

All flights to/from Madeira operate weekly, but the Boston flight ends up ahead for ASMs. It flies as follows:

From Funchal, Madeira:

• Wednesday: departure 06:00, arrival 09:35

From Boston:

• Tuesday: departure 11:05, arrival 23:00

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