Passengers of low cost landing at St. Michael can … – Mad Money

The free referral system costs the public purse 4 to 5 million euros

easyJet and Ryanair start flying to the Azores
DR

You a historic day for the Azores. He tore this Sunday the liberalization of air links between the mainland and the island of São Miguel. For now, easyJet and Ryanair will only fly to Ponta Delgada, but the Azores Regional Government wants to bring the impact of liberalization at all arquipélego and therefore will allow passengers of low cost, as is the case passengers of TAP and SATA, may resort to free routing system. This means, basically, that those who fly easyJet or Ryanair will fly to San Miguel later, without paying more for it, to the other islands of the archipelago.

Passengers Mainland Travel or Funchal to Ponta Delgada will only have to declare the AERA company in which travel to the final destination is another and can not be more than 24 hours on the island of São Miguel. The routing is provided by SATA, which is “contractually obliged to provide [this] service without charge for the passenger,” says the company.

The Government already had a slice of the budget allocated to this service and this share will not be increased. “We maintain national support to the Azores, the state budget of 16 million euros. This value can be redistributed to various installments, as the Government better understand, and the Government decided to set aside a portion between 4 and 5 million euros for the referrals system “, says Sergio Monteiro, Secretary of State for Transport, Live Money. Whereas the liberalization of air links will lead to a large increase in passengers, the government will need to assess if this “will be enough,” admits Sergio Monteiro.