Sardinia and Its Air Route System
Table 1. Sardinia main characteristics
| Sardinia | Italy |
| Surface [km2] | 24,090 | 301,338 |
| Population | 1,652,119 | 60,233,947 |
| Employed population | 673,570 | 25,514,924 |
| GDP [M€] | 31,212.0 | 1,609,462.2 |
| Tourism- Arrivals | 2,242,707 | 103,723,869 |
| Tourism- Presences | 11,448,683 | 386,894,732 |
Sardinia is the second largest island of the Mediterranean and has a population of approximately 1,650,000 inhabitants (Table 1). Its economic and social system is based on a connection service with mainland Italy that handles a total of 7.4 million passengers (year 2014). This service is provided using maritime and air transport services: the former involves the ports of Cagliari, Porto Torres, Olbia and Golfo Aranci, the latter the airports of Cagliari - Elmas, Olbia - Costa Smeralda and Alghero – Fertilia, offering national and international services.
Sardinia’s development has always suffered, and still continues to suffer, from problems related to its insular nature, notably as regards the transport of passengers. The distance that separates it from mainland Italy leads to there being no valid alternative to air transport. The journey time of the island’s ferry services (8-12 hours) is so long, in fact, that travellers accessing the island must strictly depend on air transport.
Over the years, the highly critical situation of this type of transport, mainly due to its expensive fares and inefficient organisation – often aimed at satisfying company logics rather than users’ interests, has made the island become practically inaccessible.
Despite this introduction, it is nonetheless important to recall how the air transport system has evolved radically over the past 15 years. It has seized the opportunities presented by the liberalisation of air transport cabotage offered by the European Union and the subsequent arrival of low-cost carriers (1997/2002), as well as those presented by the requirement of public service obligations (PSOs 2002/03), by the activation of a timely promotional policy focusing on the island’s airports (end of 2004) and by the infrastructural modernisation of all three airports in Sardinia (Programma Operativo Nazionale (National Operational Programme) – PON funds). Figure 1 shows the geography of the context.
These changes have led to an increase in the number of passengers arriving and departing from the island. In 2014, this number was approximately 7.4 million, growing by 69% compared to 2002, when the total number of users did not exceed around 4.4 million. If we compare airports, the airport of Cagliari has grown by 68%, confirming its leading role (3.6 million passengers, 49% of total passengers) compared to Olbia - Costa Smeralda airport + 57% (2.1 million passengers, 29% of total passengers) and Alghero – Fertilia airport + 103% (1.6 million passengers, 22% of total passengers).
The global data indicate that the growth of domestic and international air traffic is attributable to several contributing factors, including: rapid travel thanks to the new “point to point” links to various Italian and European cities, high standards of comfort and lower fares, following the implementation of flights subject to Public Service Obligations (PSO).
Despite not being able to transform the historical weakness of Sardinia’s economic and social system due to its insular nature, these profound changes have nevertheless made it possible, at least partly, to reduce the island’s marginalisation in its relations with Italy and Europe. It has provided the opportunity to broad sections of its population to use air transport services and has encouraged a process of internationalisation of its economy, mainly in the tourism sector. It is indeed widely acknowledged that the greater attractiveness of air transport has had beneficial effects for the development of this area which currently counts upon around 2,245,000 arrivals at the island’s ports and airports over a 12-month period, ensuring an annual presence of tourists of around 11.45 million units per day (year 2014). Furthermore, air traffic growth has paved the way for solving an issue that has always been considered strategic in Sardinia’s tourism policies, i.e., extension of the tourist season. Tourist arrivals are indeed still concentrated in the summer months as demonstrated by the percentage of passengers travelling from June – September 2014 in the airports of Olbia, Alghero and Cagliari, which is respectively 70%, 50% and 49% of the total amount.