The leader of BE/Azores accused Ryanair of another “trading maneuver” after the CEO’s statements on the departure from the regional market of the Azores, stating that the airline already “said everything and its opposite” on the subject.
© Left.net
12/11/2026
by
Lusa
O bE/Açores’ leader said today that Ryanair has already said “everything and its opposite” about its exit from the regional market and that recent statements from its CEO are “another negotiation maneuver”.
António Lima said that this “is a theater” in which Ryanair “has already said everything and its opposite on the subject”, first “which were fees, and now says it is a breach of contract”.
“Unless there is a contract that we do not know and is not public, because, in fact, the contracts that are published ended before Ryanair left,” said the Bloquist leader in a press conference in Ponta Delgada.
António Lima considered that “the Government of the Azores must clarify whether there is a hidden contract that is not public”.
The low-cost airline, which had been flying to the Azores since 2015, abandoned the route at the end of March, justifying the decision with airport charges and European environmental taxation, without having ever claimed any breach of contract.
On Tuesday, Ryanair’s CEO Eddie Wilson said that in the Azores “the problem was that they broke the contract,” adding that the company “does not do business with those who break contracts”.
Today's press conference also served for the BE/Azores leader to present the measures that the Party Member in the Assembly of the Republic will present, concerning the Azores, under the State Budget for 2027.
In the context of housing, it proposes a financing line to re-qualify the public housing park and to “create solutions for people in economic need”.
It is also intended to increase the supply of public housing for rent at controlled costs.
The BE also wants the entry of a €20 million grant to “support the replacement of the response capacity [of the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo], in the framework of the Government’s commitment to bear 85% of the costs resulting from the fire of 2024”.
The party wants, within the framework of inter-links, that public service obligations for air transport, which “are not updated since 2021”, increase from the EUR 10 million foreseen for the 15 million, establishing an annual update based on inflation.
The BE also wants the mechanism to be implemented in the first half of 2027 to allow residents in the Azores to pay, at the time of the purchase of the airline ticket, “only the amount that they effectively bear, already discounted public support”, in the links with the continent.