From March 29th onwards, tickets to Rome and Milan from the three Sardinian airports will not be available . Simply run a simulation on the websites of the airlines that have been operating under Territorial Continuity for three years: Aeroitalia, ITA Airways, and Volotea. It all depends on the fact that the regional tender expires at the end of next month, and the routes for the new one have not yet been assigned.
How long the disruption , which affects Sardinian residents and tourists alike, will last is unknown . No official statement has been released from the Department of Transport. It's assumed sales will resume regularly next week. But there's no certainty. This is also because the routes to be awarded in the new tender, for which bids opened on December 15th, have different timeframes. On the Cagliari-Linate and Alghero-Fiumicino routes , Aeroitalia is running alone.
In this case, the route assignment process is faster. For the Cagliari-Fiumicino, Olbia-Fiumicino, and Olbia-Linate routes , Aeroitalia has agreed to operate the flights without compensation. The other two carriers, ITA Airways and Volotea, which have formed a temporary consortium (RTI), have one month to decide whether to continue operating without receiving public funding. This means the judging panel evaluating the operational proposals will take longer to make a decision, including from a technical perspective, to verify the condition of the fleet and whether the tender requirements are met.
The Alghero-Milan line is a different matter: no companies have submitted bids . In this case, the Region is required to extend the current tender, and will do so until October, to avoid any disruptions during the summer. However, a new ad hoc tender will be published within the next few weeks.
