The government of the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is preparing a decree covering a series of measures including a air ticket price cap at the height of the summer season.
The draft decree, still subject to amendment by Parliament, prohibits airlines from increasing fares to Sicily or Sardinia over the summer beyond a “200% higher” than the average price over the year. Sicily and Sardinia are poorly connected to the mainland, which means that residents and tourists have no choice but to use air transport to get there, even when prices are very high in high season .
Faced with this draft decree, the airlines operating in Italy, gathered within the professional associations Italian Board of Airlines Representatives (IBAR) and Assaereo, complained in a joint statement that the government of Giorgia Meloni had never discussed the issue with them, saying it could have led to “less punitive solutions“.
They also stated that price controls “appears to conflict with applicable industry regulations“, which generally allow carriers operating in the European Union “to choose the routes on which they operate and to freely set fares for passengers and freight“.
