SATA invited five competitors to privatise Azores Airlines to submit binding proposals by December 9, when the candidates will be disclosed, the Azorean aviation group announced.
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14/10/2026
by
Lusa
A sATA’s administration invited five competitors to privatise Azores Airlines to submit binding proposals until December 9, when the candidates will be released, the Azorean aviation group announced today.
‘The five candidates that had made non-binding proposals for the privatisation of Azores Airlines were invited by SATA Holding to submit binding proposals by 9 December’, reads in a press release sent by SATA.
The aviation group states that the decision ‘was taken after the completion of the examination of the proposals submitted by the applicants’ and that the names of the entities will be disclosed at the next stage of the process.
‘The binding proposals shall be submitted in accordance with and under the conditions set out in the Order of Charges for the proceedings. On that occasion, SATA Holding will disclose the name of the candidates who will move to the final stage of the privatisation process’.
SATA Holding revealed on 22 September that it received five non-binding proposals under the privatisation process of SATA International/Azores Airlines.
“ The proposals received will now be the subject of analysis and evaluation, as defined in the Paper of Charges of the Process”, then revealed the company in a statement sent to Lusa the day after the deadline for submitting non-binding tenders.
On September 16, the Azorean aviation group reported that it completed the analysis of the documentation in the context of the privatisation process of Azores Airlines and decided to invite six entities to submit non-binding proposals.
The privatisation specifications of SATA International/Azores Airlines proposes the sale of at least 75% of the company and prevents the extinction of jobs and collective redundancies for 30 months.
According to the restructuring plan approved by the European Commission, the specifications set out a “private negotiation” model for the privatisation of the airline, which will have to be completed by the end of the year.
The specifications set out an initial stage for the qualification of interested parties, a second stage for the submission of non-binding proposals and a third stage for binding proposals, also providing for the possibility of a “possible phase of final negotiation”.
Among the selection criteria for the proposals are the value presented for the purchase of the shares, the “commitment to contribute to the strengthening of the company’s economic and financial capacity”, the “absence of legal or economic constraints”, the guarantee of respect for labour commitments and the promotion of “shareholder stability”, through the “implementation of a government model that takes into account the specific nature” of Azores Airlines.