“In March 2023, 130,902 passengers disembarked at the airports of the Azores, with a positive variation of 22.9% compared to the same month of the previous year”, said SREA in a publication with statistics on air transport in the country.

Compared to the same month in 2019, a period prior to the covid-19 pandemic and in which the Azores had broken a record of arrivals in March, with 109,510 passengers, there was an increase of 19.5%.

According to SREA, of the nine islands of the Azores, three registered a decrease in the number of disembarked passengers, compared to March 2022.

The biggest reduction occurred on the island of Flores (-16.0%), followed by Corvo (-2.4%) and Graciosa (-1.8%).

São Miguel and Faial were the islands with the highest increase in disembarked passengers, in March, with 36.5%, followed by São Jorge, which registered a growth of 25.8%.

Santa Maria (9.9%), Terceira (1.1%) and Pico (almost 0.1%) also registered an increase in arrivals, but less accentuated.

It was among passengers coming from international flights that there was the biggest increase compared to the same period last year (62.5%), with 9,913 people disembarking at airports in the region.

The largest number of passengers disembarked in March came from the Portuguese mainland or Madeira (68,266), a typology that registered an increase of 11.2%, compared to March 2022.

Passengers on inter-island flights (52,723) increased by 28.7% in March.

According to SREA, the number of passengers boarded at Azores airports in March rose to 126,746, an increase of 19.2% over the same period last year.