Many people of Sardinian origin who would have liked to book a flight home during the Christmas holidays have been forced to give up: there are very few flights to Sardinia and ticket prices are very high. The situation is not very different for Sardinians who would like to reach mainland Italy. The subsidy system of the so-called “territorial continuity” should guarantee convenient prices for those who live on the island, but even in this case the places are not enough to satisfy the high demand. In fact, Sardinia is much less connected to Italy than in the past: it is a deeply felt problem because it affects the lives of thousands of people for whom the only alternative is to spend the holidays away from the family.
In recent weeks, many Sardinian newspapers have published the testimonies of people who had looked in vain for affordable flights. Many complaints were also posted on social networks. Already now, a month before Christmas, the prices offered by airline sites are high: 600 euros for a return flight from Linate to Cagliari with Volotea, 680 euros from Fiumicino. The connection between Bergamo and Cagliari costs over 100 euros, one way only. From Bologna, on the other hand, a flight to Cagliari on 23 December costs over 250 euros, to which extra costs for services and luggage must be added. In the next few days the prices could increase.
The newspaper New Sardinia he compared the prices of connections to Sardinia and some intercontinental flights: ITA Airways, the company that replaced Alitalia, offers a flight between Alghero and Linate for 339 euros, 42 euros less than a flight between Rome and New York, with the difference that the first takes just over an hour while to reach the United States you need about ten. The alternative is to reach Sardinia by ship, but the journey from Genoa, Livorno or Civitavecchia takes 9 to 10 hours and a ticket for a single person, without a car, costs around 50 euros.
Francesca Ghirra, deputy of the Verdi-Left alliance, released some data in a question to Transport Minister Matteo Salvini. ITA Airways and Volotea, he said Ghirra, have “progressively reduced the frequency of the routes, at the same time increasing the fares for non-residents to the point of imposing the payment of 400 euros for a one-way trip from Cagliari to Milan. The daily connections from Cagliari to Linate have increased from 6 to 4 and those to Rome from 7 to 6. At the Olbia airport there are 3 connections to Rome and only 2 to Milan».
The decrease in daily flights makes the so-called territorial continuity, which has been in operation since 2000, much less effective. In a nutshell, territorial continuity is the set of legislative instruments with which the State helps airlines so that certain categories of travelers have discounted fares for their travels to and from a territory. The preferential fares are possible thanks to public money awarded through tenders to one or more airlines. Sardinia has three main airports: Cagliari, Alghero and Olbia. Territorial continuity concerns the flights that connect these three airports with Rome Fiumicino and Milan Linate.
Territorial continuity guarantees discounted fares: 39 euros for connections with Rome Fiumicino and 47 euros, always excluding taxes, for those with Milan Linate. These rates are dedicated exclusively to people who live in Sardinia, to people with disabilities of any nationality or residence, to university students up to 27 years of age, to young people from 2 to 21 years of age, to the elderly over 70 years of age, also in this case of any nationality or residence.
The controlled price is calculated in a simple way: it is the actual cost of an hour’s flight to which a company profit of between 4 and 6 percent is added. The companies are also entitled to annual compensation guaranteed by the Region, up to this year of 46 million euros. From 2012 and until 2021, prices were regulated also for non-residents through the so-called “single tariff”, which was later removed with the 2021 tender. «With respect to the territorial continuity in force between 2013 and 2020, there was frequency reduction by 44% and the number of seats available per day decreased by 27%», said Ghirra. “The current situation is truly intolerable.”
Last year the call for territorial continuity was won from the low cost airline Volotea thanks to a 50% discount on compensation. ITA Airways, excluded, appealed to the administrative court of Sardinia (TAR), losing it. On March 22 Volotea, with its contract expiring, announced its intention to guarantee territorial continuity without any compensation, however recovering the money thanks to significant increases in ticket prices for non-residents. At that point also ITA Airways to propose to guarantee the service without compensation e found an agreement with Volotea to share the connecting routes until 14 May 2023, but at the end of the summer both companies they communicated to the Region of Sardinia early termination of the contract. In a note, Volotea confirmed the termination “in the face of rising inflation and the current cost of fuel”.
At the end of October the Region published the new tender for territorial continuity which provides for compensation of 52 million euros, 6 more than the previous tender. At the moment it seems that no airline has come forward: there is time until December 27, when the tender will expire. The result is that at the moment ITA Airways and Volotea have scheduled flights to Sardinia only until the obligation to maintain the service established by law expires: on both companies’ websites it is not possible to book flights to Sardinia starting from mid of February.
