Santa Maria Airport (Azores)

Santa Maria Airport is an airport located 5km west northwest of the urbanized area of Vila do Porto on the island of Santa Maria, in the Portuguese autonomous region of the Azores. A principal hub in transatlantic travel until the end of the 20th century, it was constructed at the start of the Second World War to protect convoys by American troops who were ceded authority until its end. From this period on, the airfield took on a commercial role, reinforced by inter-island travel and connections to Europe, resulting in its obtaining the communication duties for the North Atlantic sector of the airspace corridor.HistoryIn the context of the Second World War, in July 1941, a Portuguese mission under the command of engineer Colonel Hermínio José de Sousa Serrano, and which included Colonel Frederico Lopes da Silva and Major Fernando Tártaro, visited Santa Maria to study a possible location for an airfield, opting for the plateau known as Pico de Maria Dias. Three years later, technicians from Pan American World Airways arrived on the island, arriving on board the NT Lima in December 1943, and confirmed that the location was optimal for establishing a military airfield to complement the field at Lajes. The airfield would, therefore, assist in the protection of the maritime convoys that crossed the Atlantic to support the port of Murmansk in the Soviet Union, which were being sunk by German U-boats.