Close to the deadline of 14 October, Uiltrasporti Sardinia recalls the need to define the question of territorial aerial continuity. In particular, clarifies the secretary general William Zonca, it is necessary "to immediately close the emergency procedure and work on an innovative tender that guarantees the rights acquired in recent years by the Sardinians and protects the stability of the island's airport workers put to the test by the pandemic".
For the union "it is necessary to firmly entrust the connections in territorial continuity to put an end to the chaos of recent weeks and allow residents in Sardinia to be able to travel peacefully from the island with the guarantees offered by the service charges".
“We can't wait any longer”, reiterates Zonca. “The mobility of the Sardinians has been an achievement over the years and it would be reductive to define it only as a possibility of moving from Sardinia to the Peninsula. Its heart lies in the reference legislation that guarantees the safety of the provision of the public service. Over the years, the Sardinians have been able to count on the certainty of frequencies, on a specific type of aircraft, on stable and regulated tariffs (cancellations, refunds and travel). Let's not forget that these rights are the true heart of our territorial continuity ”.
According to Uiltrasporti Sardegna, the carrier that will win the next territorial continuity must have some characteristics: the possibility of providing essential services for residents that low cost carriers often do not guarantee such as the transport of stretchers, requests for oxygen therapy, the transport of dangerous goods, animals in the hold, radioactive and biological material and that of unaccompanied minors. “All these ancillary services must be guaranteed by the carriers - explains Zonca -. This is the heart of the rights that the Sardinians have won in recent years, not just displacement ”.
Lastly, for the union “territorial continuity will have to be extended to peripheral airports with an innovative tender which provides for the assignment of the service for an appropriate period and the division between flight rates and assistance costs. These two amounts must be well defined because we believe that the carrier should not dump the companies that provide assistance - concludes the secretary -. Indeed, it would be even more innovative to put Sardinian airports in synergy for the assignment of ground assistance services. This is to protect the employment and stability of the workers of Sardinian airports already questioned and in severe crisis by the pandemic ”.
(Unioneonline / ss)
