Azores Situation Report Wednesday 2^nd August 2023 

Tender for privatization of Azores Airlines with two proposals 

The tender for the privatization of Azores Airlines received two proposals, submitted by the Atlantic Consortium and the consortium NewTour/MSAviation, which offered 6.50 euros for each share of the company responsible for connections with the outside of the Azores.

The Atlantic Consortium is formed by Vesuvius Wings, White Airways, Old North Ventures, Consolidador and Euro Atlantic Airways.

The European Commission approved Portuguese state aid to support the airline’s restructuring of 453.25 million euros in loans and state guarantees, providing for ‘remedies’ such as a reorganization of the structure and the divestment of a controlling stake (51%) in Azores Airlines, the SATA group company responsible for flights outside the archipelago.

Beach festivities mark the 80th anniversary of the arrival of the British military on the island. 

The Beach Festivities, which take place from the 4th to the 13th of August, mark the 80th anniversary of the arrival of the British Air Force on Terceira Island, in the Azores, with a parade of more than 90 extras.

From Friday to the 13th, Praia da Vitória celebrates its biggest parties with musical shows, processions, traditions, popular marches, exhibitions, bullfighting, sports and gastronomy, among other activities.

One of the highlights of the program is the opening procession, on Saturday night, which attracts thousands of people to the main arteries of the city.

This year, with the theme “From golden wheat to iron birds”, the festivities mark the arrival in Terceira, in 1943, of the Royal Air Force, who built an airstrip in Lajes.

Power failure was due to a problem in a high voltage transport network equipment. 

The interruption in the supply of electricity that affected, on Sunday, several areas of the island of São Miguel, was due to an unpredictable problem in equipment on the high voltage transmission network, which was isolated, after the adoption of security measures, the power was fully restored at 21:49.

 

The Azores Situation Report Wednesday 26th July 2023

Shuttle’ has already transported 18,626 people to Lagoa do Fogo 

A total of 18,626 people have taken the ‘shuttle’ trip to visit Lagoa do Fogo, on the island of São Miguel, in the Azores, since it started operating on June 15th, says the Regional Government.

With ‘shuttle’ transport in access to Lagoa do Fogo, car circulation was limited to residents’ vehicles and prohibited to ‘rent-a-car’ cars.

The ‘shuttle’ is free for residents and costs five euros for non-residents.

This transport service, provided by the company Atlântico Energy, leaves from Caldeira Velha, in the municipality of Ribeira Grande, and ends at Casa da Água, in Lagoa, and then takes the opposite route.

Transport operates on a ‘hop on hop off’ basis and covers approximately 14 kilometres, passing through six tourist attractions, from 9 am to 7 pm, every day of the week, including national, regional or municipal holidays, until the 30th of September.

The day of the week most sought after by visitors to Lagoa do Fogo is Saturday, followed by Monday and Sunday, with Wednesday being the day with the least demand.

The most popular times are from 10:00 am to 11:00 am, from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm and from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm.

The average number of tickets per day is 454, with the maximum number of tickets sold in one day (863) being recorded on June 19 and the minimum (103) on July 7 (excluding the first two days of operation) of the service.

The ‘shuttle’ service is provided with three buses (initially there were two, until the second half of July, due to technical problems).

Regarding support infrastructures, according to the Regional Secretariat for Tourism, Mobility and Transport of the Azores, there are car parks in Caldeira Velha (capacity for 101 spaces), Casa da Água (60 spaces) and Casa da Água (100 spaces) and two spaces for additional parking (for visitors in their own car/residents) at the Pico da Barrosa viewpoint and at the Lagoa do Fogo viewpoint.

The Tourism Indicator predicts that around 404,000 overnight stays in tourist accommodation will have been recorded throughout the region in June”, reads a publication by SREA, published on its website, referring to overnight stays in traditional hotels, rural tourism and local accommodation.

According to the SREA tourist activity report for June 2022, the region recorded 359,986 overnight stays in that month, a number that had already surpassed the figure for June 2019 (321,184), pre-pandemic of covid-19.

Compared to June 2022, SREA estimates point to a growth of 12.23% in 2023.

Compared to June 2019, the increase is 25.78%, with a difference of more than 82 thousand overnight stays.

The publication also highlights the number of passengers disembarking at Azores airports in June, coming from territorial flights (from mainland Portugal or Madeira) and international flights.

According to data previously revealed by SREA, the Azores recorded in June a record number of passengers disembarking by air, a total of 225,693.

The largest number of landings was passengers from inter-island flights (98,825), which registered a growth of 17.4%, compared to the same month in 2022.

It was among passengers on international flights that there was the biggest increase (33.9%), with a total of 35,195 disembarkations.

Passengers from other regions of the national territory reached 91,673, 10.1% more than in the same period last year.

According to SREA, the Tourism Indicator (TI) “aims to estimate the general evolution of economic activity in the tourism sector in the Autonomous Region of the Azores”.

“The IT-Azores results from the addition of overnight stays recorded in the three types of tourist accommodation and is released about three weeks before the publication of the Tourist Activity highlight”, reads in the publication.

The estimate of overnight stays in hotels, rural tourism and local accommodation “relies to the values ​​recorded in the Survey on Staying Guests in Hotels and other accommodation” and to “extrapolation of trends according to the expected response rate in each case “.

 

The Situation Report Azores Wednesday 19^th July 2023

Human bones found on the coastline of São Miguel in the Azores

The Maritime Police of Ponta Delgada, island of São Miguel, found “human bones” on the coastline of the parish of Relva, but whose origin is still unknown.

In a statement, the National Maritime Authority said that the bones were discovered by a member of the public on Saturday afternoon, who alerted the local command of the Ponta Delgada Maritime Police.

However, despite the steps taken, it was only possible to find the bones this Sunday.

“In view of the sea conditions and the lack of visibility at the site, it was not possible to locate the human bones”, says the same statement, adding that the searches were resumed on Sunday morning, culminating in the discovery of the human bones, which are presumed to be belong to the same person, along the coastline.

According to the National Maritime Authority, the bones were transported by the Volunteer Firefighters of Ponta Delgada to the Institute of Legal Medicine.

The case will now be investigated by the Ponta Delgada Maritime Police Command.

Five arrested suspected of drug trafficking in São Jorge

Three people were held in preventive detention and two with a term of identity and residence because they were suspected of belonging to an alleged drug trafficking network that operated in São Jorge, in the Azores.

According to the Regional Command of the PSP of the Azores, the suspects, arrested “in flagrante delicto” on the 9^th of July, are four men aged between 24 and 57 years and a woman aged 48 years.

The police believe that it was “possible to dismantle a drug trafficking network operating in the municipality of Velas”, after an investigation carried out “over several months”.

It was possible to seize “2,202 individual doses of hashish, 128 individual doses of cannabis, ready for consumption, a monetary amount of 3,636.06 euros, reproductions of firearms and other weapons”, in addition to “objects related to trafficking”, he adds. to PSP in a press release.

The network allegedly operated from two residences located in Vila das Velas, a place “where a significant number of consumers went solely for the purpose of purchasing a narcotic product”, adds the PSP.

The alleged organized group was led by two suspects, who acted in cooperation with two other elements responsible for storing the product and a third suspect who transported the drug by sea to the island of São Jorge.

During this operation, two arrest warrants outside of flagrante delicto, three house search and seizure warrants and two non-domestic search warrants in the municipality of Velas were served. A house search warrant was also served in the municipality of Praia da Vitória, on Terceira Island.

The detainees were present at the first judicial interrogation at the Velas Judicial Court.

The operation involved the police from the Velas Police Station, in close collaboration with the Calheta (São Jorge) Police Station, the Criminal Investigation Police Station from Angra do Heroísmo and Praia da Vitória (both on Terceira Island) and the Cinotechnical Operational Group of the Força Destacada, of the Special Police Unit.

 

The Azores Situation Report Wednesday 12^th July 2023

Magnitude 3.3 earthquake on the Richter scale felt in Faial.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.3 on the Richter scale was felt on Monday on the island of Faial, in the Azores, according to the Information and Seismo-volcaeic Surveillance Centre of the Azores (CIVISA).

According to CIVISA, the earthquake was recorded at 6:51 pm and had an epicentre about 23 kilometres west-northwest (WNW) of Capelo, on the island of Faial.

“According to the information available so far, the earthquake was felt with maximum intensity III/IV (Modified Mercalli scale) in the parishes of Castelo Branco, Flamengos and Matriz (Horta municipality)”, indicates CIVISA in a statement.

Inauguration of the Biological Waste Treatment Centre in São Miguel

The municipalities of the island of São Miguel, in the Azores, today inaugurated a Centre for the Biological Treatment of Waste, an investment of 7.6 million euros that will make it possible to value waste that until now was considered “undifferentiated”.

Until today, the waste produced in our kitchens was placed in landfills. They had no appreciation of any kind. We are talking about 30% of the total waste produced on the island of São Miguel, which was considered undifferentiated”, said the president of Musami, the company that manages waste from the six municipalities of the island of São Miguel, Ricardo Rodrigues.

According to the official, the installation now inaugurated, and which cost 7.6 million euros, “will treat and value this waste, transforming it into around 4,500 tons of compost” that farmers can use on the land.

Flores and Corvo with orange warning due to heavy precipitation

The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) raised the warning issued for the Western group of the Azores to orange, due to the forecast, from the end of the day, of intensified precipitation.

“The passage of a depression with an associated frontal system will cause a worsening of the weather, especially in the islands of the Western group”, says a statement from the IPMA delegation in the Azores, signed by meteorologist Carolina Medeiros.

According to the IPMA, the rain could be heavy on the islands of Flores and Corvo “from the end of Tuesday”, so it raises the alert level to orange in that group of the Azorean archipelago.

The IPMA had issued a yellow warning for the islands of Flores and Corvo, now raising it to orange, the second most serious on the scale, issued in “a meteorological situation of moderate to high risk”.

Thus, the islands of Flores and Corvo will be under an orange warning between 18:00 today and 00:00 on Wednesday, a period in which there may be precipitation, sometimes heavy, accompanied by thunder.

The IPMA also issued yellow warnings for the islands of the Central (Terceira, São Jorge, Pico, Graciosa and Faial) and Eastern (São Miguel and Santa Maria) groups because of the sometimes-heavy precipitation, which may be accompanied by thunderstorms.

For the Central group, the yellow warning will be in effect between 18:00 today and 12:00 on Wednesday.

In São Miguel and Santa Maria, the yellow warning will be active between 6 pm today and 9 am on Wednesday, adds the IPMA statement.

The yellow warning, the least severe on a scale of three, is issued by the IPMA whenever there is a risk situation for certain activities depending on the weather situation.

In view of these forecasts, the Regional Civil Protection and Fire Service of the Azores recommends that self-protection measures be taken.

The Civil Protection of the Azores advises, among other measures, the consolidation of roofs, doors and windows, as well as the cleaning of drainage systems adjacent to houses.

Storing loose objects in the garden, closing doors, windows and shutters well, are other measures recommended by the Civil Protection on its official website on the internet.

The Azorean Civil Protection also advises against unnecessary circulation, considering the possibility of the formation of water tables.