Azores Airlines Logo

Azores Airlines is a Portuguese airline tasked with making long-distance flights from Azores (Portuguese islands off in the Atlantic) to North America and Europe, including, of course, the Portuguese mainland. At the same time, their parent company SATA Air Açores only makes flights around Azores proper.

Meaning and History

Azores Airlines Logo history

Azores Airlines was originally established in 1994 and was bought off in 1998, which made them change the name to SATA International (owing to their role as an international subsidiary of a local airline). In 2015, they were renamed Azores Airlines, but retained their purpose.

Who owns Azores Airlines?
The company is owned by SATA. It’s a regional airline that operates on the Azores.

1994 – 1998

Azores Airlines Logo 1994

Upon its creation, the company was called OceanAir. They had a red-dominated logo that as simply their name written in thick, rather soft letters. There were also two ribbon shapes that went from brown to yellow and blue to green respectively. Both were adjacent to the logo’s left.

1998 – 2010

Azores Airlines Logo 1998

After being bought by SATA, the company changed their logo according to their parent’s emblem. There was a big word ‘SATA’ written in blue, very blocky letters. They were sharp and oddly geometric, and the ‘A’s in particular were just two parts: a trapezoid and a curved line that swirled around the former’s right.

It was followed on the right by a much simpler word ‘International’ – also blue’, but written in a completely ordinary style.

2010 – 2015

Azores Airlines Logo 2010

In 2010, the logo was simplified. The big letters in ‘SATA’ were still bulky, but now resembled actual typed characters. The second word became was turned into a Portuguese spelling – ‘Internacional’, and the letters were largely unchanged, except for a slight tilt.

There was also a new emblem – a dark blue wing with an identical turquoise shape behind. No doubt, it’s supposed to belong to a goshawk – a cultural symbol of Azores. The color blue is also taken from their flag.

2015 – today

Azores Airlines

By 2015, the name was changed to ‘Azores Airlines’. The layout was similar: ‘Azores’ as written on the left in a mix of capital and lowercase letters using a dark blue color. ‘Airlines’ was on the right side, in all lowercase and with a turquoise coloring. All characters were the same size, however, even if ‘Azores’ was rather thicker.

Where does Azores Airlines fly?
Most of their destinations include Europe, particularly Portugal. Less frequently, they fly to America.

The font was now a much more fluid and softer style, unlike the typographic approach from before. The new emblem was a bird with both wings stretched-out and flying upwards. The colors shifted between different shades of blue. It also represents a goshawk.

Emblem and Symbol

Azores Airlines Emblem

What is Azores Airlines?
It’s an international airline that travels between Azores and the rest of the world. They make long and medium hauls to various continents.

Most of their planes use both the bird emblem and the word ‘Azores’ written over their stabilizers as livery. However, there’s also a green variation of the logo, which also shifts the main coloring of the vessels to green (where the green version is used). The green is supposed to represent Portugal, and blue – Azores. These are used in parallel.