ROUTES EUROPE: Cagliari Airport - Air Traffic on The Rise

Posted 08/05/2011

Cagliari Elmas Airport was the fastest growing facility in Italy in 2009 and has seen passenger traffic more than double in the past four years.  “Over the past two years we have registered very good traffic growth with double-digit numbers,” Vincenzo Mareddu, Chairman, Cagliari Airport told The HUB Daily.

According to Mareddu, the most recent growth can be attributed to the increase in low-cost carriers now serving the airport and highlights the arrival of Ryanair at Cagliari as playing a key role in its development.  “Ryanair has had two aircraft based in Cagliari since March 2009,” he said. 

A current study of the airport’s scheduled traffic (see table below), shows quite clearly how Ryanair has grown a notable presence at Cagliari.  It now offers over 70 weekly flights to 15 destinations, accounting for 23.8 per cent of the airport’s weekly seat capacity.

MARKET ANALYSIS: CAGLIARI ELMAS AIRPORT (non-stop weekly flights)
Rank	Airline	Weekly Flights	Weekly Seats
1	Meridianafly	115	29,876
2	Ryanair	76	14,364
3	Air One	62	9,853
4	easyJet	16	2,496
5	Alitalia	7	1,309
(others)		19	2,365
TOTAL		295	60,263

Mareddu readily admits that the Irish low-cost carrier has had a major impact on the airport’s network and traffic growth, but is also quick to point out that his team is committed to working with all carriers that have an interest in the Sardinian market.

“Ryanair is very important as it has a significant market share, but all airlines are important to us, as we are focused on diversifying the airlines at the airport to avoid any kind of monopolistic situation,” he explained.

Local carrier Meridianafly is the largest operator at the airport with links to domestic destinations as well as Paris CDG, while Air One and Alitalia also offer flights to the Italian mainland.  The low-cost carrier count is supported by easyJet which has flights to Basel/Mulhouse, Berlin, Geneva, London and Milan, while airberlin and Germanwings also provide links into the German market.   Alongside Alitalia, three other flag carriers serve Cagliari: Lufthansa has flights from Munich, British Airways from London and Luxair from Luxembourg.  Other airlines offering scheduled links include Darwin Airlines and Niki, while Edelweiss Air, Jetairfly, Monarch Airlines and Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium offer charter services.  The main scheduled market is to mainland Italy but other key markets include France, Spain and Switzerland.

In tomorrow’s The HUB Daily we will look in greater detail at the airport’s planned growth, key future markets and its latest infrastructure project, due for completion later this month.

---

With effect from March 19, 2012 the Breaking News coverage on Routesonline is powered by Airline Route.  For more analysis on these stories please read our expanded coverage of the key stories of the day in The HUB. 

You can also keep up to date with the latest network development news by following the live updates from @Routesonline, @TheHUBRoutes, @RouteExchange and @airlineroute on Twitter.  While all the latest news from our events can be seen by searching the #RoutesAfrica, #RoutesAmericas, #RoutesAsia, #RoutesCIS, #RoutesEurope and #WorldRoutes hashtags.

All material is copyright of UBM Aviation Routes but the views expressed are not necessarily the views of UBM Aviation Routes and the company shall therefore not be liable for the contents of any article that appears on the site.  Although the best efforts have been taken in collecting and checking the material we can not and do not warrant that the information contained in this product is complete or accurate and does not assume and hereby disclaims liability to any person for any loss of damage caused by errors or omissions.

PLEASE NOTE: From March 7, 2012 schedule data for all news stories has been extracted from OAG Schedules iNET; All GDS data is based on a live GDS update on the day of publication; Traffic data extracted from IATA BSP system for the year ending December 2011.  All information is subject to change.