SATA Air Açores

SATA Air Açores is a Portuguese airline based in São Sebastião, Ponta Delgada in the Azores, Portugal. It operates scheduled passenger, cargo and mail services around the Azores. It provides its own maintenance and handling services and manages four regional airports. Its main base is at João Paulo II Airport, Ponta Delgada. It also maintains a subsidiary for mid- and long-haul flights, Azores Airlines, the former SATA International.

On August 21, 1941, a group of investors that included Augusto Rebelo Arruda, José Bensaude, Augusto d'Athayde, Corte Real Soares de Albergaria, Albano de Freitas da Silva and the company Bensaude & Co. Lda. established Sociedade Açoreana de Estudos Aéreos Lda. to look into the feasibility of developing an inter-island airline that would link the Azorean archipelago and continental Portugal, and to obtain the government concession to do so. Augusto Rebelo Arruda eventually transferred his shares to Bensaude & Co. Lda. on September 15, 1947, although the first Sociedade Açoreana de Transportes Aéreos flight occurred from Santa Maria Airport in June 1947. Captain Marciano Veiga piloted the first flight at the controls of a twin-engine Beechcraft with seven passengers.

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