What Aeroitalia says
In an interview with La Nuova Sardegna published on 29 October, Aeroitalia's chief executive Gaetano Intrieri set out the airline's position:
Its booking platform shows three daily Olbia–Rome flights from November 2026 to February 2027, against four required. He puts the cut down to fuel costs.
«Con il carburante a 1,50 euro al chilo questo regime di Continuità non si può sostenere» (with fuel at €1.50 a kilo this continuity regime cannot be sustained).
The Region has not adjusted fares to the higher fuel price, which he says the rules allow.
The airline wrote to the Region a month earlier and is having its lawyers serve formal notice. Without concrete answers it could seek «risoluzione del contratto», termination of the contract, under article 1467 of the Civil Code, which covers obligations that become excessively burdensome through unforeseeable events.
ENAC, the civil aviation authority, was expected to call a meeting by Monday 2 November.
Aeroitalia has hired 389 Sardinians, he said.
This is an ultimatum, not a departure. Aeroitalia has not announced that it is leaving Sardinia.
What the rules require
The public-service obligations on the six routes between Alghero, Cagliari and Olbia and Rome Fiumicino and Milan Linate are set by a transport ministry decree that became binding on 29 March 2026. For Olbia–Fiumicino it sets, at minimum:
Winter: four flights a day in each direction, one in each time band, about 696 seats a day
June, July and September: eight a day
August: nine a day
Olbia–Linate has a minimum of four a day from December to May and five in November. Resident fares are €30 one way to Rome and €44 to Milan, before taxes and charges. Once approved, the timetable «è vincolante per il vettore», binding on the carrier.
Carriers can accept a route without exclusivity and without public money, or the Region can tender it with compensation. In February the Region said Aeroitalia would fly Olbia–Milan, Olbia–Rome and Cagliari–Rome without compensation, and won the tenders for Cagliari–Milan and Alghero–Rome as the only bidder. No carrier bid for Alghero–Milan.
What the Region says
Barbara Manca, the regional transport assessor, replied on 30 October, Sardinia Post reported: «Nessun taglio, tra quelli operati, è stato autorizzato» (no cut made so far has been authorised), and «Eventuali iniziative unilaterali saranno valutate nelle sedi competenti» (any unilateral move will be assessed in the competent venues). She noted that the ministerial decree froze fares for two years, that the tenders have no automatic fuel adjustment, and that carriers which chose to fly without compensation should weigh the risks of that choice.
This is not the first cut. In September Aeroitalia dropped the 22:00 Fiumicino–Alghero flight from 1 October; Manca called it a unilateral breach of the service obligation that would be sanctioned, L'Unione Sarda reported on 23 September.
The €10 million fuel fund
L'Unione Sarda reported on 30 September that the Region had approved a fund of €10 million for 2026 to cover the exceptional rise in jet fuel costs on continuity routes, with and without compensation. The transport department is to measure the extra cost carriers bore from 1 March to 30 September 2026, route by route. Manca said it is not an automatic or blanket refund. The payment criteria are not yet set and the measure has to comply with EU state-aid rules. On 30 October Manca added, according to Sardinia Post, that the Region has sent a wider proposal to the transport ministry and ENAC and is waiting for a formal answer.
What it means for passengers
If you hold an Olbia–Rome booking between November and February, check whether your flight still exists; the airline must offer rebooking or a refund for a cancelled flight under EU rules.
Residents booking at continuity fares should book early; with three flights instead of four there are fewer seats at the regulated price.
A complaint about a missing continuity flight can go to the Region's transport department and to ENAC.
Our view
This section is the opinion of Sardinia Blog's publisher, not news reporting. Sardinia Blog belongs to the Rental12 ecosystem, which lets homes in Olbia and Golfo Aranci, so Olbia's flights affect our business directly.
Fewer cheap tourists is not a disaster. When Ryanair froze growth over the municipal tax in February, Rental12 argued that volume at any price is not what Sardinia needs, and Ryanair halving its Olbia winter flying has not changed that view. Fewer flights to the mainland are a different matter. The continuity flights are how people in Gallura reach hospitals and specialists in Rome, how students go back to university, how a business here gets someone to a ministry and back in a day. A fourth daily flight in January is not a luxury.
Both sides have a point. Aeroitalia chose to fly without compensation and accepted frozen fares; fuel then went up. The Region has €10 million set aside and no rules to pay it. Pay what is verified, quickly and within EU law, and hold the airline to four flights a day. A public fight while passengers lose a daily flight helps nobody. This is a cost crisis, and the question is who is next. Ferries, probably: car-and-two-passenger fares to Sardinia were up 8.3% in the third quarter, with Genoa–Olbia up 9.6%, according to Ferryhopper's price index reported by CityNext. The island's links cannot be renegotiated one crisis at a time.
A note on the numbers
The three-flight schedule is what La Nuova Sardegna reports Aeroitalia's platform showing; we have not checked every date ourselves, and schedules can change. The four-flight winter minimum and 696 seats are from the ministry decree's frequency table for Olbia–Fiumicino; summer minimums differ by month. The €1.50 a kilo is Intrieri's figure. The €10 million covers fuel costs from March to September 2026 and is not tied to any one airline.
Photo: Olbia airport's departure hall out of season. Photo: Sardinia Blog.
Sources: La Nuova Sardegna, 29 October 2026 · Sardinia Post, 30 October 2026 · Sardegna Notizie 24, 30 October 2026 · Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, decree no. 213 of 9 September 2025 · Regione Sardegna, 2 February 2026 · L'Unione Sarda, 30 September 2026 · L'Unione Sarda, 23 September 2026 · CityNext, 23 October 2026
Related reading
Elsewhere on Sardinia Blog: Ryanair's 50% winter cut at Olbia and 15% at Alghero; Aeroitalia's extra Christmas flights from Trieste to Olbia; and why searches for Olbia flights are rising for 2027.
Sardinia Blog is published within the Rental12 ecosystem, an owner-operator letting homes it owns in Olbia and Golfo Aranci. Its own articles on Ryanair and the municipal tax, on Aeroitalia's new continuity routes, on jet fuel and Olbia airport and on ferry fares to Sardinia, and its press archive, are company statements, not independent evidence.