3748 Easyjet to Sardinia

I've just been checking out the Winter timetable for flights from Luton to Cagliari Sardinia. I can't believe that Easyjet are only flying Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. This is even less than last Winters' flights. I have flown this destination every 4 weeks for the past year and have always thought how well subscribed the flight was. I even thought to myself that Easyjet would be putting on more flights this Winter!

Does anyone know if this will be the definitive timetable for Winter or if changes may be made?

Category
General chat about Italy

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 05/25/2006 - 08:38

Does seem a bit strange flights always packed.Also,why the Tuesday flight just a return from Cagliari??

Millerman have ever tried the Ryanair service from Stansted to Alghero?
I know it's a 2 hour drive down but the roads are good.It was 29c when we where there last week!!:)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 05/26/2006 - 04:50

Hi

We regularly fly to Olbia , and not only has the winter timetable been cut short this year, ( 3 flights a week Wed/Thur/Sun) but the summer timetable has also been cut short. It is supposed to run until 28th October, but this year the last flight back is 30th September.

Seems very strange as in April last year I had no problem booking flights for the last week in October, which incidentally was fully booked.

I've just booked with Ryanair to Alghero for half term in October at a cost of £171 each (compared to last years flight to Olbia at £130) - unfortunately we have to take school holidays so can never get the cheap flights.

Do you reckon that this little snippet on their newspage may have had something to do with it ?

[I]Passengers, tax-payers and Sardinians lose out in PSO ruling
easyJet has been informed by the regional administrative court of Lazio that the airline will not be allowed to operate flights from Milan to Olbia for the time being, despite the obvious abuse of the Public Service Obligation (PSO) status by the Italian Transport Ministry and by ENAC.

Arnaldo Munoz, General Manager Commercial for Southern Europe, said today:
“We find it astonishing that the court blocks flights by easyJet and Ryanair to Sardinia, while Alitalia is invited to fly. The European Commission is already investigating the Decree, and we are confident that Commission will soon end this abuse of these subsidised monopolies in Italy.

Meridiana, AirOne and Alitalia will continue to share a nice, rich cake presented to them on a silver plate by ENAC and the Transport Ministry. But it is the people of Sardinia and the Italian taxpayer who have to foot the bill. We have always been against the PSO system and have refused to become part of a deal – we believe that airlines should offer the best service and the best fares to customers and leave it up to them to make their choice.

As the President of the Italian Competition Authority Antonio Catricalà stated this week, the Italian aviation market suffers from the absence of competition and stopped changing 10 years ago when liberalisation hadn’t even started in Italy. He couldn’t be more spot-on.

The PSO system is widely and increasingly abused in a number of countries as state aid through the back door, and its beneficiaries cynically try to sell it as something that is in the people’s interest. This is an insult to passengers’ intelligence: How can high fares and a waste of tax-payers money be in the people’s interest?”

The Court decision forces easyJet to cancel all flights between Milan and Olbia for this year. All passengers will be informed and will be offered a reimbursement. The free capacity will be used to provide additional services to the hugely successful destinations of Naples and Ibiza.

The Italian authorities blocked easyJet’s flights from Milan to Olbia by imposing a PSO Decree on all important routes between mainland Italy and Sardinia. ENAC even unlawfully blocked the flights after easyJet announced to operate them for free, although the legislation clearly states that the PSO Decree can only apply to flights “for remuneration”.[/I]

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 05/27/2006 - 06:24

Hi PAS 55. Yes we did the route once and everything was okay flight wise. Problem we have is we have a 2 hr drive to both airports, Luton and Stanstead and didn't want another 2.5 hr drive from Alghero to Pula if we went with Ryan. It's only 0.5hrs from Elmas to our apartment so Easyjet is our prefered choice (or was!)

Jenniec that article makes interesting reading. Am I being mercenary if I say I don't really care who does the flights as long as the timetable is good and the prices in comparison with Easyjet and Ryan? Problem we will end up with is no competition and rising prices!

I would like to know Easyjets' explanation for the cut in flights, but out of the many emails I have sent in the past to their customer services, I have only had 1 reply and that was 3 weeks after the journey I was enquiring about!