SATA Air Açores

This article is about the SATA regional airline. For the international offshoot, see Azores Airlines .

SATA Air Açores
IATA code :	SP
ICAO code :	SAT
Call sign :	SATA
Founding:	1941
Seat:	Ponta Delgada , Portugal
Turnstile :	Ponta Delgada
Home airport :	Ponta Delgada
IATA prefix code :	737
Management:	António Gomes de Menezes ( CEO Sata Airlines Group)
Number of employees:	545
Frequent Flyer Program :	SATA Imagine
Fleet size:	6th
Aims:	National and international
Website:	www.sata.pt

SATA Air Açores (SATA stands for Sociedade Açoreana de Transportes Aéreos ) is a Portuguese regional airline based in Ponta Delgada in the Azores and based at Ponta Delgada Airport . Like its sister, Azores Airlines, it belongs to the holding company Grupo SATA .

history

SATA Air Açores was founded on August 22, 1941 as Serviço Açoriano de Transportes Aéreos ( SATA for short ) and began operating on June 15, 1947 between the islands of São Miguel and Santa Maria . Originally a private company, SATA was nationalized in 1980.

In 1994 they took over the Portuguese Oceanair including its operating license for international routes and renamed it SATA Internacional .

In 2010, SATA Air Açores received 1.6 million euros from the Portuguese state in return for the flights between Portugal and the islands. It is 100% owned by the Azorean regional government.

Destinations

From its home base in Ponta Delgada, SATA Air Açores flies to the Azores islands of Santa Maria , Terceira , Pico , Faial , São Jorge , Graciosa , Corvo and Flores . In addition to passengers, freight and mail are also transported. Medium and long haul flights are operated by the subsidiary Azores Airlines .

fleet

As of March 2020, the SATA Air Açores fleet consists of six aircraft with an average age of 14.4 years:

Aircraft type	number	ordered	Remarks
De Havilland DHC-8-200	2
De Havilland DHC-8-400	4th
total	6th	-

Incidents

• On December 11, 1999, a BAe ATP of SATA Air Açores ( aircraft registration CS-TGM ) was flown into a mountain on the Azores island of São Jorge . The machine was on the way from Ponta Delgada to Horta on the island of Faial . The pilots had requested and received clearance for a visual approach when they encountered heavy rain and turbulence. In doing so, they lost sight of the ground. Since they did not use their weather radar or altimeter appropriately and did not adhere to the prescribed minimum altitude, the plane collided with the Morro Pelado volcano near Pico da Esperança . The flight altitude was less than 1000 meters, although the machine was still 56 kilometers from the destination airport. Today a memorial stone commemorates the victims. All 35 people on board were killed in this CFIT ( Controlled Flight into Terrain ).

See also

• List of airlines

Web links

Commons : SATA Air Açores  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• SATA Air Açores website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ jornaldiario.com - Sata recebe 11 milhões de euros do Estado (Portuguese), accessed December 4, 2009
2. ↑ SATA Air Açores on Planespotters.net, accessed March 5, 2020.
3. ^ Accident report BAe ATP CS-TGM , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 3, 2020.