4th July, 11:02am, a historic day for the Gallura’s people and the entire business community in the north east of the Island, 114 new passengers landed at the Costa Smeralda airport.
After several administrative battles and delays, the budget airliner Ryanair successfully managed to open up this seasonal route from the English city of Birmingham to the important sea-town of Olbia, North East Sardinia.
5,800 bookings have been processed for this route already, offering 2 services a week - Monday and Friday - with the possibility to reserve flights up to the end of October.
Also this year SkyEurope, Sterling, EasyJet, Jet2.com enhanced the list of the routes towards Olbia by operating from Leeds, Bristol, Copenhagen, Billed, Zurich Prague and Vienna amongst the other destinations available.
Meridiana, the major Sardinian airline founded and owned by Prince Aga Khan, the "father" of the Emerald Coast, which has its headquarters in Olbia, announced a massive investment in new generation aeroplanes. They also intend to cut oil prices in order to offer more competitive fees and better service for their passengers. The company offers flights from and to Olbia and London Gatwick airport every Saturday.
Furthermore, important news hit recently the headlines of the local papers, which was also confirmed by Mr Sandro Broccia, the man in charge of the Sardinian Transports Department that there has been an increase of almost 150.000 ( 18 % more compared to last year ) passengers arriving in and departing from the 3 major Sardinian airports of Alghero ( 20 % increase comparing to 2007* ), Cagliari (24 % *) and Olbia ( same results as in 2007) in the first quarter of 2008, leading to nearly one million of the total number of passengers that have visited the Island since the beginning of the year.
This situation confirms the recent positive trend of the increase in the number of visitors, especially foreign, who are ripping off the advantage of cheap tickets to discover the natural beauty of this marvellous Island and its rich heritage and history, with a good percentage of them buying eventually a property in Sardinia.
Have a good flight to Sardinia then!
