Between January and November 2023, 2,013,956 passengers disembarked at the region’s airports, more than what was recorded in the entire year of 2022 (1,842,460), can be read in the report on the movement of air passengers for the month of November, published on the SREA website.

Data available on the SREA website, consulted by Lusa, shows this is the highest number of arrivals at airports in the Azores, since 1986.

November 2023 broke a record for the number of travellers to disembark in the archipelago (117,517), 4.5 percent more than the same period of last year.

Passengers coming from abroad saw the biggest increase (38.5 percent), to a total of 9,828 visitors.

However, the number remained below that for inter-island passengers (53,583), which increased by 6.7 percent, and passengers from other regions of the national territory (54,151), decreased by 1.9 percent.

Compared to November 2022, only three islands recorded an increase in passengers disembarking that month: Pico (31.2 percent), Graciosa (15.1 percent) and São Miguel (9.2 percent).

The biggest decreases were seen on the islands of São Jorge (-21.9 percent), followed by Corvo (-7.5 percent), Flores (-4.2 percent), Terceira (-3.9 percent), Faial (-2.6 percent) and Santa Maria (-1.3 percent).

Between January and November, all islands showed growth in terms of the number of passengers, compared to the same period of last year, the biggest increases occurring in São Miguel (19.8 percent), Faial (16 percent), Pico (15.8 percent) and São Jorge (15.5 percent).

The number of passengers embarked in November was higher than those disembarked, reaching 123,915 people, 5.3 percent more than in the same period of the previous year.

Regarding the type of flight, there was an increase of 6.1 percent in passengers on inter-island fights (53,442) and a 38.9 percent increase in passengers on international flights (12,196).

As for travellers on flights from other regions of the country, boardings fell by 0.4 percent, to 58,277 people.