An Augustan holiday on the splendid beaches of Sardinia is once again confirmed as a luxury experience: for a family with average incomes, the costs are very high. It is bad for those who travel by plane and decide to rent a car: although down compared to 2019, the rates for car rental on the island are among the most expensive ever in our country.
It is no better for those who choose to take their car on a ferry. A Federconsumatori survey highlighted a series of increases compared to the pre-pandemic summer. Which in truth do not only concern Sardinia but also the connections with the other large island, Sicily. The association explains that higher prices do not correspond to better services “indeed, this year as never before we receive complaints relating to uninhabitable bathrooms and cabins without air conditioning”. In short, the impression is that some companies have adjusted their prices to compensate for a part of the proceeds that have failed during the pandemic.
The association examined eight routes: for each of these it calculated the average ticket price for two adults and one child (with car), round trip, in the two central weeks of August.
The result? In 2021, all routes will be increased. The Genoa-Olbia is the one that has undergone the greatest increase with + 23% for the seat and + 36% for the cabin. In absolute terms it means that if two years ago an armchair cost 488 euros, now it stands, on average, about 598; the cabin went from 598 to 710. An armchair, therefore, costs the same as a cabin two years ago. Significant increases also on the Naples-Palermo, especially for the cabin which costs about 130 euros more, while the Livorno-Olbia is the least affected by the increases, which there are.
In detail:
|
Armchair 2019 |
Cabin 2019 |
Armchair 2021 |
Cabin 2021 |
Armchair% variation |
Cabin% variation |
|
|
Civitavecchia-Arbatax |
413,00 € |
488,00 € |
451,00 € |
542,00 € |
9% |
11% |
|
Civitavecchia-Cagliari |
692,00 € |
761,00 € |
752,00 € |
887,00 € |
9% |
17% |
|
Civitavecchia-Olbia |
603,00 € |
632,00 € |
630,00 € |
685,00 € |
4% |
8% |
|
Genoa-Olbia |
488,00 € |
521,00 € |
598,00 € |
710,00 € |
23% |
36% |
|
Livorno-Olbia |
640,00 € |
772,00 € |
674,00 € |
786,00 € |
5% |
2% |
|
Piombino-Olbia |
412,00 € |
485,00 |
487,00 € |
524,00 € |
18% |
8% |
|
Naples-Palermo |
423,00 € |
512,00 € |
470,00 € |
640,00 € |
11% |
25% |
|
Palermo-Cagliari |
403,00 € |
498,00 € |
445,00 € |
530,00 € |
10% |
6% |
The association tries to explain the August increases with the decrease in tourism recorded since the beginning of the pandemic (and therefore the need, as mentioned, to “patch up” the drop in revenues) and with the expensive fuel, which is affecting all motorists travelling. But that of fuel is a cause that does not hold much, because in the summer of 2019 prices were just lower than today, the collapse was in fact recorded only in the course of 2020.
The survey analyzed the prices of medium-length routes, thus not considering the Villa San Giovanni-Messina, that is, the one that runs through the Strait of Messina, connecting Calabria to Sicily. Commuters and vacationers who have sailed on the strait are well acquainted with Caronte, a shipping company on which an Antitrust investigation is underway, which assumes a monopoly situation, with very high prices compared to those applied by other companies on similar routes. length. In February 2021 Caronte also entered the judicial administration. However, compared to last summer, “we have no news of tariff increases. The main complaints we collect – says Furio Truzzi, president of Assoutenti – in any case concern the queue for boarding ”.
.