"No to Ryanair's blackmail". The deluge of Sardinian reactions to Ryanair's announcement that it intends to cut routes to and from the island in protest against the government decree imposing a ceiling on connection tariffs is summed up in the words of the general secretary of Uiltrasporti Sardegna William Zonca.
Ryanair, la continuità territoriale? «Uno spreco di soldi»
The company's announcement arrived this morning in Cagliari through the mouth of the Irish company's chief commercial officer, Jason Mc Guinness: «I'm here to unfortunately announce something that we certainly wouldn't have wanted: a reduction of almost 10% compared to the scheduled for winter», he told reporters, and then added: «This is totally related to the decree of the Italian government which we consider totally illegal and which will only have the effect of reducing connectivity».
According to what has been learned, three national routes to Trieste (from Cagliari), Bari and Treviso (both from Alghero) have been canceled and frequencies on 7 other routes have been reduced, including 6 essential national connections to Rome, Milan (Bergamo and Malpensa), Catania, Naples and Venice, as well as Brussels Charleroi.
Uiltrasporti: "Blackmail"
"We return Ryanair's blackmail on the reduction of routes in Sardinia to the sender and we believe that the company can always continue to fly as it wants and when it wants in the skies of our island", attacked Zonca, "We believe that Sardinia is perfectly capable of sell its tourist product and has all the characteristics to be on the market: the number of passengers who have arrived to date demonstrates this. We need to get out of the scheme whereby Ryanair sells passengers to Sardinian airports, also because the low-cost airline is the emblem of deregulation and non-compliance with fair competition".
The CGIL: «Shameful»
“It is shameful that Ryanair can decide to reduce or cancel flights
to and from Sardinia: an unacceptable choice by a company which, moreover, is the recipient of aid and subsidies for connections with the island". Thus the secretary of the CGIL Sardinia Fausto Durante who underlines how that choice demonstrates how short-sighted and contrary to the interests of the community it is to entrust the management of mobility and the right of people to travel to companies that aim exclusively for profit. In fact, according to the secretary, "the speculative and market logics should be banned when it comes to ensuring the right to mobility for those who live on an island far from the mainland, whose citizens cannot be further penalized for this".
Deidda: «A spite»
The chairman of the Transport Committee of the Chamber, Salvatore Deidda, Forza Italia parliamentarian also intervenes on the matter: «It is a pity that Ryanair, instead of dialogue and institutional confrontation, chooses to justify the commercial choice to cut routes, in the winter season, which is less profitable compared to the summer one, to criticize a provision which, moreover, must and can still be discussed and modified and has not yet had effect. It's a spite." Deidda adds that "other companies offer us their contribution to improve the provision, understanding that the opinion, also in other EU states, on the behavior of low cost is changing and soon also in Europe we will be able to change the legislation and rules on transport airplane".
Customers
The protest against the government decree is "a ridiculous excuse: first Ryanair claims it has never used algorithms, then it announces that it is cutting connections due to the decree which limits itself to prohibiting them only if they lead to a ticket sale price or ancillary services of 200% higher than the average flight fare". Massimiliano Dona, president of the National Consumer Union, supports it in a note, hoping for a relaunch of the government and Parliament: "Don't give in to blackmail."
(Unioneonline/E.Fr.)