Ryanair is moving fast, the Region a little less, but the request made by the carrier to cancel the "Municipal Tax" will soon have an outcome. "Reducing the municipal tax is a very interesting idea for the winter", says the Tourism Councillor Franco Cuccureddu, "and we are studying this solution, definitely the best to have more flights to promote the other "products" that are dear to us, the non-beach ones, New Year's Eve, Carnivals, Holy Weeks".
At the study
The councilor is investing heavily in "destagionalization" and last weekend in Milan at the "Fa' la cosa giusta!" Fair he presented a series of "slow" projects and initiatives, "which strengthen the role of Sardinia in the national tourism panorama, proposing an attractive model throughout the year". Here, in this broad discussion, the policy of transport and low cost, of the protection of the Island and of the barriers against overtourism also fits in. They are doing the math, to understand if the game is worth the candle. "Now let's see how many resources we find", continues Cuccureddu, "then the Transport councilor will communicate, but it is still the path that will allow us to overcome that gap of an occupation of the structures limited to a few weeks - now seven, because the last of August is no longer the high season - and therefore will allow us to spread the flows better".
The proposal
The offer came from Ryanair three weeks ago. In Cagliari, Jason McGuinness, Chief Commercial Officer of the Irish company, illustrated to journalists the "summer" 2025 with 71 routes to and from the island (with no increase compared to 2024) and said that the day before he had met with the heads of the two departments and presented "a concrete development and growth plan". In essence, with the suppression of the municipal surcharge - the tax paid by passengers of 6.5 euros per ticket, the total revenue of about 35 million euros per year is collected by the State and then a small part is passed on to the cities where the airports are located - Ryanair in five years would put on the table of the Sardinian tourist system 4 more B737 aircraft (today there are 3); 400 million more in investments (compared to the current 300 million); over 2 million additional passengers per year (now there are 4.4 million); a new base in the North of the Island with an additional 900 local jobs, both direct and indirect (we are now at 3,300); the launch of a series of new national and international routes (which would become around a hundred in total) to Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the Nordic countries.
The impact
According to McGuinness – who underlined the strongly positive impact that the same operation is having in Abruzzo, Calabria and Friuli Venezia Giulia – the economic impact on the holiday industry would exceed 400 million euros per year, and obviously the farewell to the additional tax would affect all the carriers that operate here, creating a virtuous circle. The Irish have not given a deadline to the Region, they have only said that if they do not move quickly in this direction, they will fly away.
