What is Airspace

Until 2015, air transportation in the Autonomous Region of the Azores faced a strong situation of monopoly as only two airlines where operating on domestic routes between the mainland, Lisbon and Porto, and the archipelago. From a consumer's point of view, there were only two main differences regarding airfares, the so called “resident fare,” which was only for passengers that had their main living address on one of the nine islands and the “normal fare.” With other words, each and every passenger that lived on the Azores had access to special reduced rates. This positive point, on one side, had its negative aspect on the other side, as it affected national tourism, excluding all residents on the Portuguese mainland and/or Madeira from having access to these fares. With the liberalization of air space and the arrival of low cost airlines, such as Ryanair and EasyJet, the situation changed.