“Pico isn’t just well-serviced in terms of number of seats offered, but it could also have exceptional flights, if need be,” the governess highlighted in her speech in Azorean parliament, gathered in the city of Horta, in response to a session of questions posed to the Government by Liberal Initiative deputy Nuno Barata about the investments announced on the island of Pico.

The secretary-general intends for this doubling of available seats to be a “robust offer” from the regional airline that’s fuelled by the growth of tourism on the mountain island.

During the session, the secretary-general also announced that the public “Azores Ports” company had acquired a pump to remove the algae that’s been accumulating in the Madalena do Pico port and causing nauseous stenches.

Berta Cabral also shared that the Government intends to find a long-term solution to this algae build-up problem, which has been around for several years, adding that the Regional Lab for Civil Engineering will study the movement of the waters underneath the port, which will be overseen by Trigo Teixeira, a professor of coastal and port engineering at the Instituto Superior Técnico.

Alexandra Manes, a BE deputy, questioned the Government on the bad state of the access road to the Casa da Montanha, where tourists who intend to scale Mt. Pico, the tallest peak in Portugal (2351m), all pass, as tourism agencies and taxi drivers have complained about road conditions. António Ventura, secretary-general of Agriculture and Rural Development, reminded that the road had already been “repaired,” but added that the Azorean government plans to launch a public contest for its repaving as part of the next community financing program.

Besides accessibility, topics of culture, health and habitation also came up in this question session, headed by deputy Nuno Barata, closed a group of nine of these sessions that went over the problems currently affecting the nice islands of the Azores.