Airlines operating in Italy have criticised a plan the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has hatched to curb ticket prices, in a draft law they warned could breach European Union free market rules.
The draft decree, which is still subject to change, would place a cap on airfares for flights to and from Sicily or Sardinia of 200% of the average price for such routes, the newspaper Giornale di Sicilia reported.
Both Italian islands are popular with tourists, but poor connections to the mainland and a lack of other travel alternatives mean locals as well as visitors are forced to pay sky-high prices during the peak season. Ticket prices to Sicily and Sardinia have risen sharply in recent weeks, and the government in Rome is keen to intervene.
However, the trade associations Italian Board of Airlines Representatives (IBAR) and Assaereo (Associazione Nazionale Vettori e Operatori del Trasporto Aereo) complained in a joint statement issued on August 8 that the government had not discussed the issue with them, adding that talks could have “identified less punitive solutions for the sector.”
They also said that price controls “would appear, if confirmed, to be in contrast with the applicable sector regulations, in particular with Article 22 of the European Union’s Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008,” which allows airlines to choose the routes on which to operate and to freely set their tariffs. The possibility of controlling the cost of tickets is allowed only through the imposition of public service obligations, they added.
Companies such as ITA Airways, Lufthansa, easyJet, Air France, American Airlines, and Emirates, among many others, are IBAR members, according to the association’s website.
The groups warned that “any attempts to limit the freedoms of the sector and the competition that distinguishes it could generate negative impacts on the products and on ticket prices, to the detriment of the free movement of citizens, direct employment, and related industries in the sector.”
In Italy, measures in a decree law take effect after the parliament ratifies them, which it has to do within 60 days otherwise they lapse. It can also amend the contents of the decree during ratification.
Earlier this month, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Sicilian President Renato Schifani as saying: “For months now we have been carrying on our battle against the high price of flights. We can therefore only consider the intervention of the Council of Ministers [in Rome], which we have repeatedly requested, an important step forward in guaranteeing Sicilians, and travellers in general, the right to reach the island without having to pay very high sums. [...] After our complaints to the Competition Authority, to the judiciary, and in the light of this new provision, I hope that now even the individual carriers will demonstrate responsibility by lowering their prices.”
