Tips to Find Cheap (and free) Flights to Azores

The Azores, an archipelago of Portugal located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, is a great travel destination for those who want to experience a unique natural beauty. The main airport of the Azores is located on São Miguel island, and it offers direct connections to 33 cities in 11 countries. This article presents six cities and some tips to find the best deals for flights and includes bonus tips for using ferries. 

The most frequent connections (excluding the flights between different islands of Azores and Madeira) are with:

• Lisbon (245 flights per month),
• Porto (106 flights per month),
• New York - JFK and EWR (34 flights),
• Boston (25 flights per month),
• Toronto (22 flights per month).

Other connections include London, Paris, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and more.

The cities we chose for this post are New York, Boston, London, Manchester, Lisbon, and Porto.

Before we get to that, we recommend searching for your tickets on kiwi.com BUT do not ever book your flight with them directly.

New York is one of the cities that offer plenty of daily flights to Ponta Delgada, the main airport on São Miguel island. The cheapest time to fly from New York to Ponta Delgada is in January, the only month that a round-trip ticket is available for less than $500. For June and July, the prices range between $600 and $700 for a round-trip ticket. It is best to book your tickets between 55 and 65 days before your flight to get the best deal. The nonstop flights from New York take five hours, and the flight back takes six hours. Lufthansa, United Airlines, and SATA Azores Airlines offer direct flights for $530 for a round-trip for April to June, for 5, 7, or 10 days. The price includes 13kg of checked-in baggage for the first two airlines, while SATA includes 8kg baggage. 

Boston offers similar prices to New York. However, it is easier to find more deals from Boston, especially during non-summer months. The summer flights from May to August tend to be more expensive. The flight from Boston takes five hours, and the flight back takes six hours. 

London and Manchester are two of the cheapest cities to fly from to Ponta Delgada, and a round-trip ticket can be obtained for under $100. The cheapest months to visit the Azores are November, January, February, and March. The most expensive month is August. Ryanair offers many round-trip tickets for less than $100. However, these tickets do not include checked-in baggage. Although the authors are not fans of Ryanair, the airline was the most reliable airline in Europe in the first half of 2022, with only 0.3% of flights being canceled. Direct flights from London and Manchester take around four hours in each direction. 

Lisbon and Porto are the two closest airports on Europe's mainland that offer the cheapest tickets to the Azores. The cheapest one-way ticket is 18 $/€, and a round-trip starts at 39 $/€. Ryanair offers the cheapest options from October to May, at least once a week. These tickets do not include checked-in baggage. The tickets for the summer season cost 100€ or more. TAP Airlines offers 8kg luggage included for around 70€ between November and May. It is best to book your flights either 15 to 30 days in advance or 90+ days in advance. The flight takes a bit more than two hours one way. 

Tip for getting more with less:

Once you see the amazing view of São Miguel, you will want to explore more. The Azores consist of nine islands connected by ferries and planes. Island hopping is easy, and if you travel to or from Lisbon, you can take off from a different island than you landed on. For example, you can land in Ponta Delgada, travel to Horta airport in Faial, and fly to Lisbon from there. 

Inter-island flights

Azores Airlines  is the only carrier that operates these flights, with affordable one-way fares between popular destinations like Ponta Delgada, Horta, and Terceira. Multi-city flights are also available at discounted prices but require careful planning. This option often comes with more than a 60% discount compared to booking each flight separately.

We found flights between Ponta Delgada and Horta from 72 to 92€ one way. One flight takes 1 hour.

The flights between Ponta Delgada and Terceira are between 66 to 92€ one way and take 40 to 45 minutes.

The inter-island planes, however, are small, either for 37 passengers or 80 passengers.

source: Azores Airlines

And what about the free flights?

Under a few conditions, Azores Airlines is legally required to provide you with a free connecting flight within the Azores if your final destination is an island other than the island you landed on, or if you are leaving from the Azores to Madeira or the mainland of Portugal, from an island not connected to these destinations. You can request this a few weeks (at latest 5 days) before your travel at this website. Please read carefully, this applies only if you fly from or to Madeira or mainland of Portugal, but you can use it twice - for your inbound and outbound flights.

For example, you want to get to Flores or Graciosa, and there is no direct connection from the above-mentioned places. You can book a flight to Ponta Delgada, Horta, or Terceira, and request a connecting flight for free, including up to 23kg baggage. The rule is that you will be able to stay in the layover town for a maximum of 24 hours.

When to use ferries

We recommend using ferries only within the island groups, not between different groups. The best ferry routes are between Flores and Corvo (40 minutes, 10€), Faial and Pico (30 minutes for 3.80€), and Pico and São Jorge (around 1 hour, 10.50€).

The longer routes are between Terceira and Graciosa (around 3 hours and 30 minutes), Graciosa and São Jorge (less than 3 hours), and São Miguel and Santa Maria (less than 4 hours).

There is only one company that provides the ferry routes, and you can see the prices and timetable here.

Make sure you plan this ahead as not every route is all year round, not daily, and the seats are limited.

Bonus tips:

• Try searching for flights in different currencies or using VPN. We have experiences with getting even half the price off for some flights when we changed the currency and our location. To not lead you on, this was a low-cost flight from Varna (Bulgaria) to Vienna (Austria) where the price was 10€ in Austria and 40 Bulgarian leva (more than 20€) in Bulgaria. You can check our referral link to Surfshark, the VPN provider we are using daily.
• Use our tip mentioned above to get free inter-island flights.
• Create alerts on kiwi.com, skyscanner.net, and the airlines of your choice, to get updates on the price and availability for your dates and destinations.

Happy travels!

- Yada team :)