Ryanair is cutting flights to Alghero and Olbia . Jason McGuinness, the low-cost airline's Chief Commercial Officer , announced the news this morning at a press conference in Cagliari.
The reason is the Region's failure to abolish the municipal surcharge year-round. This is a point the company has long been pushing, a request to which the Region has only partially responded, abolishing the surcharge exclusively during the low season between November and March.
The cuts are significant: the winter 2026 schedule in Sardinia, in fact, includes a 15% reduction in flights to Alghero and a whopping 50% to Olbia , including the loss of one route. Growth, however, will be seen in Cagliari, with an increase in flights to Malpensa and Venice and a new route to Forlì.
"We welcome the Sardinia Region's decision to suspend the municipal surtax during the winters of 2026 and 2027," McGuinness said, "but the measure came too late to impact operations in winter 2026 and falls far short of the year-round abolition needed to restore Sardinia's competitiveness , particularly in Alghero and Olbia, which suffer from chronic seasonality."
The carrier is returning to one of its old favorites: "unnecessary" spending on a continuity system deemed "failing." "The Region continues to allocate nearly €50 million a year of public resources to a failed system of public service obligations . If Sardinia follows the example of Sicily, Calabria, Abruzzo, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and Emilia-Romagna by abolishing the municipal surcharge for the entire year, Ryanair is ready to immediately guarantee two million additional passengers per year, four additional aircraft (for an investment of $400 million), a new base in northern Sardinia, and over 900 new jobs over five years ," said McGuinness, citing the example of Trapani-Marsala, a success that "demonstrates exactly what happens when administrations adopt policies that favor the growth of air transport. Lower access costs translate into more traffic, more tourism, more jobs, and lower fares."
(Unioneonline/L)