Flights between Bermuda and the Azores will be able to carry more than 180 passengers, operators have said.

SATA Azores Airlines confirmed its plans for the weekly service to run this summer.

A spokesman said that the route, from Ponta Delgada on São Miguel Island, will be offered on Sundays from June 6 to September 26.

He said: “The flights are marketed in partnership with tour operators and bookings can be done through the airline sales channels or travel agencies.

“Those weekly flights will join other routes that the airline intends to carry out from the Azores.

“Namely, the recently announced connection between Ponta Delgada and Paris but also restarting flights between London and Ponta Delgada in June 2021.”

The spokesman said that the Bermuda service will run on Airbus’s A321 Neo aircraft.

There will be space for 186 passengers in two classes.

Aaron Adderley, the president of airport operators Skyport, said earlier that the organisation will “keep an eye out on the flight’s performance to see whether it is something we can build upon”.

When he was chairman of the Airport Authority, Lawrence Scott, now the Minister of Transport, met Vasco Cordeiro, then the president of the regional government of the Azores when he visited Bermuda in 2019.

Mr Scott said: “We specifically set up a meeting so we could discuss opening the route given the population we have here. We believed that was a good idea.

“SATA Internacional was in the process of rebranding to Azores Airlines.

“They wanted to get past that and said they would see if they have the capacity to create a scheduled flight.

“I am very encouraged by the organisers of this, headed by the Portuguese Consulate here.

“This helps to expedite the plans that we had for the country.”

Mr Scott also met Garvin Medera, the chief executive of Caribbean Airlines in 2019 to discuss a potential route from Bermuda.

Mr Scott said that talks with Caribbean Airlines continued.