Airlines bear no responsibility for the "expensive flights" to Sardinia . This is the conclusion of the Antitrust Authority in its fact-finding investigation into pricing algorithms for air passenger transport on domestic routes to and from the two largest islands.
"The Authority, based on information provided by the airlines themselves, has analyzed more than 23.5 million data points on tickets actually sold for single-leg domestic flights for 2023 " and found no "competitive issues," said Guido Stazi, Secretary General of the Italian Competition Authority, during a hearing before the Parliamentary Commission for Combating Disadvantages deriving from Insularity.
"The analysis conducted," Stazi specified, "did not substantially reveal the adoption of customer profiling practices aimed at customizing prices based on the type of device, operating system, and user browsing history."
"Overall," he said, "the analysis conducted on the markets for domestic routes to and from Sicily and Sardinia did not reveal any critical competitive issues related to the functioning of pricing algorithms or actual pricing dynamics, such as to suggest, at this stage, collusion between airlines that would be subject to antitrust action."
"There is no doubt that effectively addressing the disadvantages of insularity is an essential objective for the country and also a delicate test for the 'social market economy' model, which, enshrined in the Treaty and the Constitution, requires combining market freedom with demands for social justice and solidarity, allowing—where there is market failure—state intervention to correct imbalances and ensure collective well-being," he further specified.
Codacons responded immediately, stating that "the problem with the high cost of flights to Sicily and Sardinia, as we have repeatedly denounced, is not user profiling for the personalization of prices, but the use of algorithms by airlines that are causing ticket prices to rise to unsustainable levels."
Assoutenti also shares this opinion, specifying: «When at Christmas a plane ticket to fly from cities in northern Italy to Sicilian airports ends up costing more than an intercontinental flight, we cannot speak of the absence of critical issues».
(Unioneonline)
