A Azores Airlines vai reforçar as ligações aéreas entre os Açores e o Porto durante o inverno IATA 2026/2027, com aumentos na frequência dos voos e no número de lugares disponíveis, na sequência dos resultados positivos registados na época de verão de 2026.
A companhia aérea registou taxas médias de ocupação de 90% na rota entre Ponta Delgada e o Porto e de cerca de 80% na ligação entre a Terceira e a cidade do Porto, indicadores que demonstram uma procura consistente por estas ligações entre as ilhas e o continente português.
Na rota Ponta Delgada–Porto–Ponta Delgada, a operação passará de 13 para 15 frequências semanais a partir de 25 de outubro, data de início do período de inverno IATA. O aumento de 15,4% face ao inverno de 2025/2026 será acompanhado por um crescimento da capacidade disponibilizada, de 100.516 para 109.912 lugares, mais cerca de 10%.
Também a ligação entre a Terceira e o Porto será reforçada. A oferta aumentará de 23.392 para 29.400 lugares, o que representa um crescimento de 25,7% face ao período homólogo. A operação passará de três para quatro frequências semanais, correspondendo a um aumento de 33,3%.
O reforço da operação deverá prolongar-se para além do inverno. A programação da Azores Airlines para o verão IATA de 2027 prevê um aumento de 3% da capacidade face ao período homólogo de 2026, mantendo a aposta na conectividade entre os Açores e o Porto ao longo de todo o ano.
Segundo a companhia, estes resultados confirmam a importância das ligações ao Porto na sua rede e sustentam a estratégia de acompanhar a procura dos passageiros, reforçando a oferta e contribuindo para a mobilidade entre a Região Autónoma dos Açores e o continente português.
Com o aumento das frequências e dos lugares disponíveis, a Azores Airlines pretende consolidar a operação nas duas rotas e assegurar uma maior capacidade de resposta às necessidades de quem viaja entre os Açores e o Porto.
The era of the standard $99 airline credit card may be fading as American Airlines becomes the latest major carrier to adjust its price tag.
Beginning Jan. 24, 2027, the annual fee for both the Citi/AAdvantage Platinum Select MasterCard and the Citi/AAdvantage Business MasterCard will jump from $99 to $150, according to a company press release.
The adjustment marks the first price hike for the popular Platinum Select consumer card since 2018, signaling a shift in the travel rewards landscape.
To soften the blow of a nearly 52% fee increase, American Airlines, Citi and MasterCard are adding several new travel and lifestyle perks.
Whether those additions make up for the $51 increase will depend largely on how travelers use the card, Nick Ewen, editor-in-chief of The Points Guy, told Fox News Digital.
"You have to look at the real dollar value based on your own travel habits," said Ewen, who is based in Florida.
Cardholders will gain additional ways to earn AAdvantage miles on everyday spending, along with up to $120 toward Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fees every four years, American Airlines confirmed.
Additionally, a new $100 annual statement credit for in-flight purchases will replace the previous 25% food and beverage discount.
This makes the card significantly more rewarding for travelers, as the credit can be applied toward broad in-flight expenses, including Wi-Fi, which was explicitly excluded under the old discount system.
For someone who regularly spends money aboard American flights or already pays for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, Ewen said the new credits could help offset the higher annual fee.
"If the answer is yes, you're definitely going to come out ahead," he said of travelers who typically spend up to $100 on in-flight purchases each year.
"If you're only flying American once a year, you may not be able to stomach that additional increased annual fee," he said.
The changes also include adjustments to how cardholders can rack up rewards on everyday purchases, according to the press release.
The personal Platinum Select card will offer three miles per dollar on eligible AAdvantage Hotels and Cars bookings and two miles per dollar on gas and EV charging, select streaming services, and eligible Rides and Rails purchases.
Existing perks — including preferred boarding, no foreign transaction fees and a free first checked bag on domestic American itineraries for the cardholder and up to four companions — will remain intact.
Ewen said the higher fee follows a broader shift among airline rewards cards.
"American is far from the first airline that we've seen this increase in their annual fees," he said, pointing to similar changes from Delta, Southwest and United.
Entry-level airline cards that once hovered around $100 annually are increasingly moving closer to $150, Ewen said.
"This is definitely the norm, although it's not universal across the board," he added.
Over the past few years, the travel rewards market has seen steady fee inflation as issuers pack mid-tier and premium cards with statement credits and subscription services.
Financial institutions are betting consumers will accept higher upfront costs in exchange for tangible, use-it-or-lose-it perks, transforming traditional flight-focused credit cards into broader lifestyle products, according to reports.
The changes drew mixed reactions from cardholders online.
"These inflight credit[s] [are] annoying," the person wrote. "They don't even stock them except for longer flights."
Others were more receptive to the new benefits, with one commenter pointing to the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit as a reason the higher fee could be worthwhile.
A hidden problem is surfacing regarding certain pilots' behavior.
More than three in four pilots reported having at least one "microsleep" while operating an aircraft in recent weeks, according to a report by aviation consultancy Baines Simmons based on responses from 7,200 pilots across 32 European countries.
The findings were published by the European Cockpit Association (ECA), which represents over 44,000 pilots across Europe, according to a press release.
The concerns extend beyond brief episodes of sleep in the cockpit. Nearly 39% of pilots said they usually or always did not get enough rest to keep fatigue from building up, according to the report.
The findings also raised questions about whether pilots feel comfortable reporting when they are too tired to fly.
Only 37.2% said they typically report when they are too fatigued to fly, while 24.2% said they do not report it and fly anyway, according to the findings.
"When pilots fear career consequences, fatigue goes unreported, and the risk returns to the cockpit," Capt. Coen George, an ECA board director, said in the press release.
He warned that the reluctance to speak up could leave airlines unaware of how widespread fatigue is among their crews.
In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) implemented stricter pilot rest and duty requirements in 2012 to address fatigue and improve safety, the agency said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Under the rules, pilots must receive at least 10 consecutive hours of rest before a flight duty period, including an opportunity for eight uninterrupted hours of sleep. Pilots who feel fatigued or unfit to fly must report it and be removed from duty by the airline, according to the FAA.
Pilot fatigue can be particularly challenging when crews work overnight or travel across multiple time zones.
Matthew "Whiz" Buckley, a former U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet fighter pilot who later flew for American Airlines and FedEx, previously told Fox News Digital that having scheduled time off does not necessarily mean a pilot gets enough sleep.
"It's just unnatural to sleep during off-hours," Buckley said.
Pilots may arrive at a hotel early in the morning and then have to sleep during the day, while long-haul flights can further disrupt normal sleep patterns, Buckley said.
"Where it really takes a toll on the body for pilots is east-west," he said. "When you're crossing multiple time zones, [that's] when your body can really get messed up."
Buckley also emphasized that pilots ultimately have to assess whether they're rested enough to safely operate an aircraft.
"At the end of the day ... you know who determines if a pilot is fit to fly? You," Buckley said.
Having nearly "77% of respondents [in the new survey] say that they reported micro-sleeping or dozing off while at work is definitely an alarming number, and the industry does need to take note of this," Bobby Laurie, a Pennsylvania-based travel expert and former flight attendant, told Fox News Digital.
"But it's not necessarily a warning sign that the flight that you've been on had a pilot or both pilots asleep."
He said that while there are things the industry can do to "rectify this problem," travelers, too, should take note of a few things.
"If you find yourself at the airport, and the departure board is saying you're delayed due to crew rest … you need to realize that the delay is posted for safety reasons. You might not have gotten to your destination in one piece if those crew members did not get the rest they needed," he said.
Fox News Digital previously reported that rest requirements for flight attendants have faced scrutiny in the U.S.
The FAA recently proposed a nationwide rule that would prevent state and local governments from setting separate meal and rest-break requirements for flight attendants and pilots.
Major flight attendant unions opposed the proposal, arguing that some crew members already work for hours without enough opportunities to eat, drink or use the restroom.
Fox News Digital reached out to Baines Simmons and Flight Safety Foundation for comment.
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