Departure
98%
vs 95% ▲ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Santa Maria Airport (LPAZ) serves Vila do Porto on Santa Maria Island in the Azores, a windswept outpost that was once one of the busiest waypoints in transatlantic aviation. Built during the Second World War with American assistance, it retains a single long hard-surfaced runway equipped with an ILS, making it a straightforward and historically rich destination for a simulator pilot exploring the mid-Atlantic.
Santa Maria Airport is a public aerodrome on Santa Maria Island in the Portuguese Autonomous Region of the Azores, serving the town of Vila do Porto. It is owned by ANA Aeroportos de Portugal and operated by Vinci SA, and was for decades a focus city for SATA Air Açores. For a simulator pilot it offers a single very long runway with a full ILS approach, set on an isolated Atlantic island with a strong wartime aviation history.
The airport lies about 5 km west northwest of the urbanised area of Vila do Porto, on Santa Maria Island, the southernmost and easternmost island of the Azores archipelago, Portugal. It sits at coordinates 36.9739 N, 25.1711 W at an elevation of 279 feet.
There is one physical runway, 18/36, 10,020 feet long with a hard surface. It is lit, and runway 18 is equipped with an ILS approach.
Air-to-ground communication is available on 301.6 MHz and 1130.9 MHz. Area control (ACC) is on 132.15 MHz, approach control (APP) on 119 MHz, radio (RDO) on 127.9 MHz, and tower (TWR) on 118.1 MHz.
The airfield originated from wartime necessity: in July 1941 a Portuguese survey mission led by Colonel Hermínio José de Sousa Serrano assessed Santa Maria as a site for an airfield to complement Lajes, settling on the plateau of Pico de Maria Dias. Pan American World Airways technicians confirmed the site's suitability in December 1943, and the Portuguese government, under António de Oliveira Salazar, approved a project combining an inter-island and a trans-oceanic airport. Construction of an initial dirt runway of reinforced steel gridwork at Ginjal allowed the first aircraft, a US Air Force Douglas C-47 Skytrain, to land on 8 August 1944. Work continued rapidly, with taxiway extensions and a further service runway completed by November 1944, supported by a workforce that grew to around 3,000 Americans and 1,000 Azoreans. An accord signed on 28 November 1944 between the US and Portuguese governments established the field as a waypoint for aircraft crossing to the Pacific theatre or diverting from adverse weather, followed in December by an agreement with Pan American Airways that brought new radio equipment. The first Portuguese-registered aircraft, an Avro Anson Mk I from Lajes, landed on 11 July 1945, and the airport was formally inaugurated on 26 July 1945 following the arrival of a Pan American-linked Douglas C-54 Skymaster from São Miguel. American and British forces continued to use the base under wartime accords until 2 June 1946, when administration passed to Portugal. After further improvements, the airport was inspected and certified for operational traffic, and the first aircraft to arrive following certification was a Pan American Boeing 377 Stratocruiser on the New York-Leopoldville route, calling at Santa Maria on 29 October 1946. The airfield subsequently became a principal hub for transatlantic travel through much of the twentieth century, handling North Atlantic airspace communications duties as well as inter-island and European connections.
Santa Maria continues to operate as an international airport with a single long ILS-equipped runway, and has served as a focus city for SATA Air Açores. It remains the airport for Vila do Porto and Santa Maria Island within the Azores' regional network.