John Paull II Ponta Delgada Airport (; ) is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

located on the island of São Miguel, in the Portuguese archipelago of the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

. Situated west of the city centre of

Ponta Delgada Ponta Delgada (; ) is the largest municipality (''concelho'') and executive capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in Portugal. It is located on São Miguel Island, the largest and most populous in the archipelago. As of 2021, it has 67,2 ...

, it is the primary (and busiest) airport in the Azores, as well as the fifth largest infrastructure managed by

ANA Aeroportos de Portugal ANA Aeroportos de Portugal is an airport operator in Portugal owned by Vinci Airports. Among others, it operates Portugal's largest airport, Lisbon Airport. The initialism "ANA" stands for ''Aeroportos e Navegação Aérea'', Portuguese for "A ...

. The terminal was finished in 1995; by 2024 the airport served a total of nearly 3,3 million passengers. It has scheduled domestic flights to all islands of the Azores, plus

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

and the mainland, namely (

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

and Faro). João Paulo II Airport also accommodates international flights to and from Europe and North America. The airport is the major hub for the SATA Group of airlines, which includes both inter-island

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 mana ...

and international

Azores Airlines Azores Airlines, previously known as SATA Internacional, is a Portuguese airline based in the Concelho, municipality of Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel Island, São Miguel in the autonomous archipelago of the Azores. A subsidiary of ...

, and since April 2015 as a base for

Ryanair Ryanair is an Irish Low-cost carrier#Ultra low-cost carrier, ultra low-cost airline group headquartered in Swords, County Dublin, Ireland. The parent company, Ryanair Holdings plc, includes subsidiaries Ryanair , Malta Air, Buzz (Ryanair), Buzz ...

History

The airport was inaugurated on 24 August 1969 by President Admiral

Américo Tomás Américo de Deus Rodrigues Thomaz (; 19 November 1894 – 18 September 1987) was a Portuguese Navy Officer (armed forces), officer and politician who served as the 13th president of Portugal from 1958 to Carnation Revolution, 1974. He was the ...

, after its construction was planned six years earlier, in 1963.Fátima Cerqueira Dias (2010) Transferred from Santana, at the time of its opening, the runway was long and was then referred to as the Aeroporto da Nordela, owing to its location at the extreme northwest of Ponta Delgada. It was built in order to serve inter-island connections and the continent, using a single Boeing 737 from the national flag carrier (TAP33). Regular flights to Lisbon began two years later. In May 1995, at the inauguration of the airport terminal, the facility received the designation ''João Paulo II'', in honour of the visit of the Pope to the Azores in 1991. :"This airport, is part of the integrated history and economic and social development of the Azores, in particular of the Micaelenses, and constitutes an relevant equipment at the service of air transport, not just of the passengers, but also the transport and mail. It is the infrastructure with the largest expression of air traffic in the autonomous region of the Azores, reaching in 2011 935,000 passengers." Along with the airports in Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Flores, Santa Maria, Horta and Beja, the airport's concessions to provide support to civil aviation was conceded to

on 18 December 1998, under provisions of decree 404/98. With this concession, ANA was also in charge of future planning, development and construction of future infrastructures.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Ponta Delgada Airport:

Statistics

Incidents

* A

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its ...

Boeing 757 The Boeing 757 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the trijet Boeing 727, 727, received its first orders in August 1978. The ...

, operating Delta Flight 414 from

JFK International Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport is a major international airport serving New York City and its metropolitan area. JFK Airport is located on the southwestern shore of Long Island, in Queens, New York City, bordering Jamaica Bay. It is t ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, suffered a hard landing on 18 August 2019. No injuries were reported but the airplane was damaged substantially.

References

;Notes ;Sources *

External links