Planes and airports, the double cross of an island called Sardinia. A strip of land forgotten in the middle of the sea, like no other region in Europe. Technically an island, reachable by ship, also requires eighteen hours of open sea, or by air, with at least an hour's flight. In Rome they only notice it in the summer, when political holidaymakers must disembark on the golden coasts of the isolated paradise. For the rest, between "basemen" of state companies infiltrated into the corners of power and careless tenants in the buildings that matter, Sardinia remains mistreated and discriminated against, seduced and abandoned. The case of the stellar fares reserved by airlines for tourists destined for the island has captured entire pages of the national and foreign media. A devastating advertising "investment", decisive for relocating tourists to alternative destinations and holidays with low cost transport, from Albania to Croatia. Many have shouted about mugging, profiteering and speculation. In reality, however, behind this announced "air" disaster, there is much more and much worse.

Throwing responsibilities

What emerges is a preconceived plan, with acts and measures that have had the obvious effect of a chain reaction, governed by a direction of strong powers and high-class political compromises. For some time, in Italian and Sardinian politics, the rule has been to cast responsibilities far away, to push away the idea that the cause of an isolated land is to be found in choices and decisions made, instead, at home. The first issue, at the basis of the disaster, is the management of air territorial continuity to and from Sardinia. For almost ten years, from 2012 to 2021, the so-called single fare for "residents" and "non-residents" remained in force on the routes connecting the Sardinian airports with Rome and Milan, a ticket with the same regulated price for Sardinian citizens, tourists , emigrants, workers.

Single rate & suicide

In 2021, with an unfortunate choice, the Sardinian Region decided, instead of extending it to 12 months, to cancel the single tariff to leave the companies free will on the tariffs intended for those who are "coded" as "non-residents". A suicide, from every point of view. A "crazy" decision both on a tourist level, making Sardinia unattractive even in the shoulder seasons, and on a social and economic level. That choice, already devastating in itself, was accompanied by the decision to drastically reduce the number of flights, the frequencies, even eight hours of total isolation of Sardinia, as well as a very serious reduction in airline seats. Many have attempted to shift the blame onto Europe, conveniently accused of having influenced the Region's choices. False, sadly not true.

Facts and documents

For two sets of documented reasons. The first: the Sardinian Region has never "officially" put forward a proposal for a decree confirming the single tariff and the number of flights and seats capable of satisfying Sardinia's sacrosanct structural needs to "connect" with the rest of the continent . The second: the European Commission has never contested or put the territorial continuity with the single tariff under infringement proceedings and has never "rejected" what was never formally presented to it. Therefore, we must take responsibility, possibly drawing lessons from the mistakes made.

The crime

In reality, it must be said, to avoid omissions and not escape the truth of the facts, that in 2020 the Sardinian Region commissioned a well-known law firm in Rome to write the "new" territorial continuity, supporting it, again at the expense of the Region, a company with an economic-financial profile capable of calculating the needs of the Island, both in terms of service and costs. The result was disastrous. The disaster occurred right from the first contract for that "new" aerial continuity. The trial at the Sardinia TAR for that match uncovered the crime.

Fox & chicken coop

It was on that occasion that it was discovered that the lawyers who defended the Ita company, Alitalia's phoenix, and in fact contested the regional contract, were the same ones who had written in the name and on behalf of the Department of Transport that disastrous territorial continuity. In practice, Ita's lawyers were the same as those of the Region. How to entrust the design of the chicken coop fence to the fox. In this matter, the European Union simply ratified the decree of the Minister who, upon proposal of the Region, had indicated the "new" failed model of territorial continuity.

Failure to decree

It is all too clear that if the Region had presented a decree for air continuity that improved compared to the same "single tariff", both the Government and Europe would have had to take on the burden of rejecting or approving it. They didn't do it because the Sardinian Region, unfortunately, never proposed it. And it is also obvious that if the European Commission had been responsible for a "rejection" or for the opening of an infringement procedure, the Sardinian Region would have had all the credentials, including the previous ten years, to oppose also on the level judicial to a contrary decision. The Region, retracing the error, however, in recent days presented itself in Brussels without an official deliberative proposal.

Everything and more

Indeed, according to reports and declarations, an indefinite and wavering position emerges, from the restoration of the single tariff to the opposite one of the differentiated tariff. In short, everything and more. A serious vulnerability, therefore, which highlights the danger of Sardinia increasingly at the mercy of the strong powers that govern the transport system from Rome. In this story, also in light of the disproportionate prices of this last season, an eloquent fact emerges: having canceled the single fare, and having significantly limited flights, has generated a chain effect on the entire system. A single tariff for nine months of the year and controlled prices for the three summer months had the effect of calming the market, including that of low cost airlines. With the cancellation of the "single fare" and the reduction of airline seats, all hell broke loose with fares for Sardinian routes considerably higher than those for flying to New York.

Harm & insult

Injury is now followed by insult. The Meloni Government's decree, launched shortly before August 15th, passed off as a measure to limit exorbitant tickets to reach Sardinia, not only did not solve the problem, but actually made it worse. Article one of the "Air Tariffs" decree, which was supposed to limit airlines in the use of algorithms to define, always upwards, ticket prices, ends up, coincidentally, saving the state company, Ita , and only target low cost airlines.

Obligations and free market

The difference in context is substantial. Ita and Aeroitalia, on the basis of the Region's contracts, have the obligation to serve Sardinia for territorial continuity, receiving generous compensation for this, most of the time unjustified; the low cost companies, however, do not have this obligation because they operate in free market and are not contracted by the State. On the basis of the decree of 10 August, the Government imposed a limit on tariffs only on those who operate in the free market, allowing, however, especially Ita, to continue to do what it wanted on the public service. An unprecedented contradiction.

Pro-Ita standard

Article two of the decree, cunningly, in fact, imposes a ceiling for public service obligations only for future tenders and not for those already in force. The result is there for all to see. Low cost airlines, which have no contractual obligation towards the State, are threatening to leave Sardinia in particular, precisely because they operate in a free market regime, while Ita enjoys the freedom of out-of-control prices. Sardinia, therefore, with the Government decree pays the devastating effects twice: the first because the companies that carry out territorial continuity will be able to continue to impose exorbitant prices for non-residents, while the low cost companies, in response, could go, giving yet another gift to Ita & co. The mere hypothesis of the escape of low-cost airlines from Sardinia, Ryanair first, is simply a devastating hypothesis.

Big risk

First of all, the main tourist centers of the island are at risk, especially those that operate even out of season, such as Alghero and Cagliari. Cities and territories which, in the last twenty years, have also radically changed their economic physiognomy to welcome millions of tourists managed by low cost companies. A chain effect that is directly linked to the nefarious privatization plans for the island's airports. The Alghero case is emblematic: the "very private" management of that airport has announced that it has no intention of financing the development of low-cost traffic which has generated so much development over the years. Indeed, they were even more explicit: if hoteliers, restaurateurs and traders want low cost, they should pay for it.

Private airports

A devastating approach that allows us to understand how the private management of airports only thinks about making money and certainly not about the development of the surrounding area. Airports considered as ATMs, rather than attractors of development and employment. Friday's "decision" by the Chamber of Commerce, with many sub-conditions, to merge Cagliari airport with Olbia and Alghero, and in fact "give" it to the private individuals of F2i and American private funds, also risks having consequences harmful precisely on the economic development of the entire south of Sardinia. A "decision", that of the Chamber of Commerce, which had the effect of an explicit message: we don't care about regional institutions and the judiciary itself.

Challenge to the Judges

There is no other explanation for the reason why the "privatization" resolution voted by the Chamber of Commerce was adopted one hour before the hearing of the Court of Cagliari called to decide on the share "theft" to the detriment of the Region committed in the merger of the airports of Alghero and Olbia. Certainly the long arm of private affairs, now more than ever, looms over the skies and airports of Sardinia, an increasingly isolated island.

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