Ready go. The summer aviation season officially begins today but to see a flow of tourists in line with the numbers of previous years we will have to wait a few more weeks. In the offices of Elmas airport they have estimated traffic of 65-70 thousand passengers during the Easter weekend, another 62 thousand are expected in the airports of northern Sardinia .
The data - The "Summer 2024", which will continue until October, on the island will see Olbia overtaking Cagliari: for the first time - at least if we reduce the comparison to the recent past - the "Costa Smeralda" will have more connections , 117 against 81 at the capital's airport. Where in recent days the plan for summer flights was released, without much fanfare. A network that is reduced compared to 2023: 31 national connections (they were 41 a year ago), 48 international ones (they were 50), 20 companies involved (they were 23) and a slight decrease in seats offered (4,160,000 in total).
The destinations - At Cagliari airport, Ryanair will have the majority share of the summer schedule: 20 international and 18 national destinations, with a substantial confirmation of the investments and routes for 2023. The foreign routes: Brussels, Budapest, Carcassonne, Krakow, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Gothenburg, Baden, London, Madrid, Malta, Nuremberg, Palma de Mallorca, Paris, Porto, Poznan, Seville, Valencia and Vienna. The national ones: Bari, Bergamo, Bologna, Catania, Cuneo, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Parma, Perugia, Pisa, Rimini, Rome, Turin, Trieste, Venice and Verona. Volotea offers five international destinations: Athens, Barcelona, Bilbao, Marseille and Nantes. EasyJet confirms flights to Basel, Geneva, Lyon, London Gatwick and Paris Orly . The only innovations on the international front are those of Iberia, which will fly to Madrid in the heart of the summer, and Air Dolomiti with a connection to Frankfurt.
In the north – The offer of Olbia airport is more lively, which «will be enriched with thirteen new products and two new airlines», underlines the press release presenting the summer season. The most important "landing" is that of Ryanair, which will inaugurate ten connections (Bergamo, Bologna, Brussels, Copenhagen, Krakow, London, Paris, Trieste and Vienna). Also debuting for the BA City Flyer company, a subsidiary of British Airways, which will connect Olbia with Edinburgh. And again: Volotea will expand its flight offer with France, adding Brest and the German company Eurowings will activate the connection with Hannover. The Coral Riviera Growth is also expected in the Alghero airport, «thanks to a rich offer which includes thirty-two connections, of which fifteen national and seventeen international which will connect the north-west airport with twelve countries in Europe as well as Italy». Here too, Ryanair will have the greatest number of routes: the novelty will be the flight to Frankfurt.
