The rules for incentivising new flights to and from Sardinia are changing. The Regional Government has definitively approved the new guidelines for the Nuove Rotte programme, introducing an approach that is more open to proposals from airlines.
The main change concerns the choice of destinations: there will no longer be a list established in advance by the Region. The carriers themselves will indicate the routes they consider sustainable and commercially attractive, provided they meet the requirements set out in European state aid legislation.
What changes compared with the first call for proposals
The first edition of the programme included a list of 67 possible destinations identified by the Region on the basis of criteria such as potential demand, tourism appeal and connections with international hubs.
At the end of the procedure, eight routes had been declared eligible, including Alghero–Cagliari and Olbia–Cagliari.
The new model changes perspective: airlines will propose the connections, and the Region will verify whether the requests are compatible with the programme’s rules.
The comparative procedure should be used mainly when multiple carriers submit proposals for the same route or when the total requests exceed the available resources.
Ten million to attract new flights
A total of €10 million has been allocated for the programme’s new cycle:
€5 million in 2027 €5 million in 2028
The incentives may cover up to 50% of the airport costs incurred to launch the connection, in accordance with the conditions laid down in the aid scheme authorised by the European Union.
The measure is multi-year and aims to reduce the financial risk an airline must bear when opening a completely new route.
We had already covered this in our article on the €10 million allocated to new air routes in Sardinia.
More windows for submitting proposals
Another new feature concerns the timing.
The new call for proposals is expected to provide multiple time windows for submitting applications, replacing the system with a single deadline. The assessment phase will also be simplified, with the aim of providing airlines with answers more quickly.
The Region thus aims to make the mechanism more compatible with the schedules airlines use to plan seasons, aircraft and new destinations.
What could the new destinations be?
At present, there is still no list of the new routes that will launch. Their identification will depend on the proposals submitted by airlines once the new procedure opens.
In the meantime, Sardinia’s airport system has already recorded new operations for 2027 in recent months. These include the Alghero–Munich connection operated by Discover Airlines, which will begin operating next summer.
At the same time, the domestic flights between Alghero, Cagliari and Olbia, launched under the previous edition of the programme, should also continue.
The next step will now be the publication of the new procedure. Only then will it become clear which airlines will come forward and which new cities could be added to the map of direct flights from Sardinia.