“In the month of May 2023, 185,980 passengers disembarked at the airports of the Azores, with a positive variation of 20.9% compared to the same month of the previous year”, reads a publication by SREA with statistics on air transport.
The value recorded in 2023 is the highest in May since 1986, according to data available on the SREA website.
The highest number had been registered in 2022, with 153,829 passengers disembarking.
According to SREA, all the islands of the Azores showed a “positive year-on-year change in passenger disembarkation” in May, with the most pronounced ones being recorded in São Jorge (33.9%), Corvo (30.7%) and Flores (26 .3%).
More than half of the passengers, 108,947 (58.6%), disembarked on the island of São Miguel, the largest in the archipelago.
The islands are so underdeveloped when compared to Madeira that is quite easy to be 'breaking records'.
By Diogo F. from Lisbon on 13 Jun 2023, 14:08
The Azores autonomous Government should take to task an economic paradigm whereby only wealthy people can afford to visit there, hopefully keeping much of the riffraff out. It should cater, for their economic benefit, to wealthier families for their tourism industry and not as much to young people who only want to party in what many describe as being the Hawaii of Europe.
By MICHAEL ANTHONY FURTADO from Other on 13 Jun 2023, 19:20