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came up , and Sevenair ’ s bid was successful . The company operated the route from 2014 to 2018 using a Jetstream 32 ( CS-DVQ MSN 857 ), carrying an average of 33,000 passengers per year . The tender for the route was renewed in 2018 and was awarded to Spanish regional carrier Binter Canarias , which uses the much larger ATR-72 on the route . The tender came up again for renewal last year , and Sevenair is hopeful it may be awarded to it once again .
“ We believe Binter Canarias will reapply . However , our offering will be completely different from theirs ,” Sergio Leal said . “ Currently , they operate the ATR-72 once per day , and we have proposed flying up to six flights per day during peak season using our smaller Jetstream or Dornier aircraft . Our proposal , therefore , offers a lot more flexibility to visitors and residents , which will allow
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Apart from the PSO contracts , Sevenair has also been busy operating aircraft in the ACMI ( wet-lease ) capacity on behalf of other operators . It has been working in Cabo Verde , connecting the islands on behalf of the nation ’ s Ministry of Defense , chiefly performing medical evacuations on the Jetstream 32 from 2018 to 2020 . The aircraft was specially refitted for the medevac role to provide fast transport between the islands . Unfortunately , this contract came to an end when the pandemic began .
More recently , since May 2022 , Sevenair has been operating in São Tomé and Príncipe , an island
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country in the Gulf of Guinea , off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa . It has been connecting the capital with the smaller island of Príncipe .
“ The national airline , STP Airways , asked Sevenair to help with this route ,” said Leal , “ as the Ukrainian company who had been operating the route for years had to cease operations due to the war . STP have been very happy with the service so far . We operate four sectors between the islands daily and have averaged 17 passengers on the 19-seat Jetstream 32 . So , it ’ s been very encouraging seeing consistently high numbers .”
The company has continued to enlarge its presence in the global market in the last year , having also briefly operated domestic routes in Estonia on behalf of Transaviabaltika , an Estonian Airline that holds the PSO contract for the Kärdla-Tallinn domestic route .
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3 Sevenair Dornier 228 CS-AYT parked up on the ramp at Cascais Aerodrome to the west of Lisbon . |
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