Azores Situation Report Wednesday 10th May 2023
Azores break record for passengers disembarking at airports in April
Passengers disembarking at Azores airports in April recorded a new record that month, totalling 176,760, a higher figure than that recorded in 2019, prior to the covid-19 pandemic, according to data revealed by the Regional Statistics Service (SREA).
Compared to the same month in 2019, a period prior to the covid-19 pandemic and in which the Azores had broken a record of arrivals in April, with 147,252 passengers, there was a 20% increase.
According to SREA, all the islands of the Azores showed a “positive year-on-year change in passenger arrivals” in April, with the most accentuated ones in São Jorge (37.1%), São Miguel (28.2%) and Faial (26 .6%).
More than half of the passengers, 105,808 (59.9%), disembarked on the island of São Miguel, the largest in the archipelago.
It was among passengers coming from international flights that there was the biggest increase compared to the same period last year (65.7%), with 18,402 people disembarking at airports in the region in April.
The largest number of passengers disembarking in that month came from the Portuguese mainland or Madeira (86,298), a typology that recorded a year-on-year increase of 23.1%.
As for passengers on inter-island flights (72,060), they registered a growth of 17.7%.
According to SREA, the number of passengers boarded at Azorean airports also increased in April, to a total of 173,925 passengers, 24.3% more than in the same period last year.
Regarding the type of flight, there was “a positive year-on-year variation of 22.7% of passengers boarded on inter-island flights, 19.7% on territorial flights and 66.3% on international flights”.
Festivities of Santo Cristo begin this Tuesday with a preparatory triduum
The biggest religious festivals in the Azores, in honour of Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres, return in a pre-pandemic format.
After the pandemic, the Festivities of Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres resume today, in their normal format, with the preparatory triduum, with two novelties to be noted.
According to Sítio Igreja Açores, the departure of the image of Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres to the Church of São José immediately follows the sermon that will end the Procession of Changing the Image, together with a midnight Eucharist that will be presided over by the bishop of Angra, especially dedicated to Youth, are the two main innovations in the program of the feast of the Lord that starts today, with the preparatory triduum.
The spiritual preparation for the feast, held at the Igreja do Senhor Santo Cristo, for three days at 6 pm, will be preached by Father José Júlio Rocha, moralist theologian, assistant to the Diocesan Commission for Justice and Peace and member of the College of Consultants.
Cited by the Azores Church, in a press release, the rector of the Sanctuary of Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres, Adriano Borges, shows that, “during the pandemic, and after so many constraints, we tried to bring people closer to the image and changed some aspects of the format and the party program. This year, when everything returns to normal, when the pandemic is over and there are no more constraints, we have also returned to what was usual before, in essence”.
Tomorrow, after the triduum mass, there will be the launch of Armando Moreira’s book on Mother Teresa da Anunciada, whose film opens at 9 pm at Teatro Micaelense the following day.
On Friday, mass takes place in the Sanctuary at 8:00 am and 9:00 am. In addition, there will be a mass at 11:00 that will take place in the Church of São José, dedicated to the sick, with the sacrament of the holy anointing.
On Saturday there will be a special mass for the Brotherhood, inside the chapel of the Convent. Then, at 4:20 pm, the Procession of Change takes place, when the provider will ring the ‘Porta Rule’ so that the sisters can deliver the image that will remain in the custody of the brotherhood until the end of the Sunday procession.
This is followed by a solemn Te Deum by the choir of Santa Catarina da Horta, conducted by the Horta ombudsman, Father Marco Luciano Carvalho.
There will also be a sermon at the end and then the image will immediately go to São José, where at 7.30 pm a Eucharist will be celebrated for young people. The image will remain in the Church throughout the night, returning to the Shrine’s courtyard on Sunday for an open-air mass.
On Sunday, the outdoor mass will be at 9:30 am, broadcast by RTP Açores and RTP Internacional. Then, at 3 pm, the solemn procession will leave through the streets of Ponta Delgada, a four-hour tour that will end with the collection of the image to the lower choir of the Convent.