As regards flights to the Azores, SATA the airline of the Azores operates direct flights from Ponta Delgada to London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester and Dublin.
See their site here: http://goo.gl/KxmzU
I know that the Regional government has been working on getting low-costs to serve the island but to date has had no great success with the exception of Air Berlin from Nuremburg. (If Air Berlin can truly be called a low-cost.)
