As the public service obligation (PSO) contracts signed early in 2022 get to an end, the Autonomous Region of Sardinia in Italy has been seeing an open fight between two airlines for the 2023-2024 contract.
Aeroitalia, Italy’s newest private airline, and Volotea, the Spanish ultra low-cost carrier, have been publicly arguing over the rights for the essential flights connecting Olbia, in the Northeast of the island, to the mainland, namely to Milan/Linate and Rome/Fiumicino airports.
While Aeroitalia originally was selected by the Regional government for the subsidized flights connecting the cities — at a discounted rate of 75% over the budgeted premium — Volotea, which had filed the intention to serve the route at a 13% discount, later said it would fly the route to Rome without any compensation by the Region.
The route to Milan would not be comprised by the Spanish carrier.
In 2021, Volotea had won the provisional contracts for the six routes connecting the three cities in Sardinia (Alghero, Cagliari and Olbia) to the two airports in the mainland, seen below. Another set of contracts, now won by ITA Airways and Volotea for the period ending next February, were signed early in 2022.
The next contract, when decided by the Sardinia government, will comprise the period from February 17, 2023, to October 26, 2024. Aeroitalia, according to Italy’s news agency ANSA, has claimed it will go to court to fight Volotea’s counterproposal — namely, the Regional Administrative Court (TAR in the Italian acronym).
According to ANSA, the airline stated it will ask the TAR “to suspend the tender of the route, in waiting for the announcement by the Sardinian Region and the European Community about the behavior […] of Volotea.”
The airline added that it will also request the Region to operate the flight with no subsidies, effectively covering Volotea’s offer. However, the Spanish carrier’s proposal also waived exclusive exploration of the Olbia-Rome flights, meaning the market would be open for other entrants.
Finally, the Italian airline concluded its statement saying “such manifested will does not preclude Aeroitalia’s certainty to the right of having been awarded [the route] as the winner of the tender”, saying that it has also notified ENAC (Italy’s civil aviation regulator) asking the “appropriate checks” on Volotea’s “behavior”.
After Volotea’s offer (but before Aeroitalia’s reaction), Sardinia’s regional councilor for Transport, Antonio Moro, had officially stated that “we wish that the commitment Volotea makes […] with the Region and with the Sardinians is kept to the end of the term” fixed in the tender.
The continuità territoriale (literally territorial continuity) contracts launched by insular Regions of Italy have the purpose of connecting the major cities of the regions to the mainland at discounted and largely flat prices for residents. Particularly in the Sardinian case, the Region requests, when signing the agreements, a high level of frequencies and reliability.
In any case, both Aeroitalia and Volotea are holding the sales before the Region takes the final decision on who will operate the flights. Last Summer, both bidders in the continuità operation — ITA Airways and Volotea — had shared frequencies in most routes, while Alghero was not served by the Spanish carrier.
Alghero, in fact, was the only city not to see any bids in the 2023-2024 competition. The Sardinian government is expected to launch, in the following days, a “flash” tender to assure the city keeps connected to the Italian mainland.
The fight was met with skepticism by Sardinian media. La Nuova Sardegna newspaper, from Sassari, remarked that only a few months ago Volotea had claimed, in a letter to the government, that the PSO routes to the Region were deemed “unsustainable”. It was said, then, that the airline did not intend to keep serving the routes without subsidies after the end of the 2022-2023 contract.
