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.

[2] Finally, on 28 November 1944, an accord was signed between the US and Portuguese governments, that envisioned its use as a waypoint for planes travelling to the Pacific theatre of operations, or those that needed to be diverted due to weather conditions.

These included: airport infrastructures; roadways; water supply and sewage; residences; and social spaces (such as hotel, gymnasium, church, a cinema/theatre to hold 1000 people, and a hospital in the area of Santana, to evacuate the injured in the European theatre).

[citation needed] The accords between the Portuguese, Great Britain and the United States permitted those forces to use the facilities in Lajes and Santa Maria until 2 June 1946.

[7] After improvements to the runway, the airplane parking area and installations in the terminal, the airport was inspected by Lieutenant-Colonel Humberto Delgado (then-Director-General of the DGEC), for it to be certified for operational traffic.

[7] The first airplane to arrive following inspection was a Pan American Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, flying the New York-Leopoldville route, stopping at the Santa Maria waypoint on 29 October 1946.

[2] Following the airport's certification for passenger service, Santa Maria was selected to operate as the air traffic control centre for North Atlantic region, under the responsibility of Portugal by the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization (PICAO), in the first semester of 1946.

During this period, due to an absence of coaxial cable link between Europe and the United States, Santa Maria became an important international centre for communications.

[citation needed] On 13 January 1947, Lieutenant Henrique Owen Pinto de Barros da Costa Pessoa was named first director of the airport.