Flights to Sardinia already full, traveling around Christmas is an (almost) impossible undertaking

Let's start from Cagliari. But returning at Christmas is impossible, or almost. There are no continuous flights from Milan. You can find something more if the section is on Olbia. Or you turn to low cost, with a price that varies, often upwards, according to market demands. And in this case you don't take off from Linate but from Bergamo: Orio al Serio is nearby, but not just around the corner. A similar problem for those who go to Rome: they leave, but don't return before the feast for the birth of Jesus. Ita has a full house at Fiumicino from 21 to 23 December.

The prices, then: those who decide to travel and have no problems with dates do so at a reduced rate, if they are a resident. The ticket will cost up to 107 euros for those who do not have a home in Sardinia.

They have been announced, but at the moment there are no reinforcements of the lines with increased frequencies, as happened in the times when the companies were bound to guarantee the service because they were subsidised. On the contrary: the tender for the next territorial continuity was called because the companies (Ita and Volotea) had declared that they would interrupt the connections earlier than expected: in February instead of May.

In the Region they know the problem well. This morning the new transport councilor, Antonio Moro, and Salvatore Deidda, Sardinian deputy of FdI who chairs the transport commission of the Chamber, met. They will join forces, they say, to try to guarantee connections to the Sardinians: "For days I have publicly appealed to the companies", explained the parliamentarian at the end of the face-to-face meeting, "to meet the needs of Sardinia, in the meantime of the execution of the new call for territorial continuity, immediately ascertaining from Ita (which has scheduled more flights from Milan) the will to respond to the sacrosanct requests from many residents and non-residents".

«Territorial continuity must become a historic battle for all of Sardinia» , Moro said in an interview with L'Unione Sarda on newsstands, «there must be a unitary mobilization of Sardinian politics, of the Regional Council, of mayors, of parliamentarians, of productive categories, trade unions, civil society. Like the one made for insularity. And with the support of the Italian government, we must go to Brussels and claim a model that fits the needs and requirements of the largest island in the Mediterranean".

"Now the European Union should listen to Sardinia". Thus Ugo Cappellacci, deputy and regional coordinator of Forza Italia, intervenes on the issue. «As we have always maintained», he continues, «the confrontation with Brussels must take place on a political level because the current Community rules already provide for everything that is necessary to launch a model suitable for the right to mobility of Sardinians and to create a real ” plane for people and goods that connects territories. The obstacle is represented by the restrictive interpretations of the European bureaucrats, which betray the same EU provisions».

Article 16 of Regulation 1008/2008 makes express reference to the economic and social development of the Region concerned and to the "possibility of resorting to other modes of transport and the suitability of the latter to satisfy concrete needs, in particular in the event that existing rail services serve the intended route with a journey time of less than three hours and with sufficient frequencies, connections and adequate timetables”.

«Sardinia is an island», underlines the exponent of Forza Italia, «and complicated explanations shouldn't be necessary. With this framework we must demand the restoration of the single tariff that we launched in 2013 and which extended the discounts also to Sardinian emigrants and non-residents, bringing about the right rebalancing also for businesses, which could thus turn to a market no longer limited to only inhabitants of the island.

(Unioneonline/E.Fr.)