The new bank tax is not the only controversial and controversial measure that the Italian government of Giorgia Meloni. The Executive has also given the green light to a rule for limit increases in the price of airline tickets to the islands of Sicily and Sardinia (south) and the proposal has provoked the first reactions of the affected companies. The fastest has been Ryanairwhich has already warned that it is considering stopping its expansion in Italy and increasing flights from countries like Spain and Portugal to circumvent the limitation.
The new rule, promulgated by decree last Monday, has forced the CEO of Ryanair, Eddie Wilson, to travel to Rome to meet with the Minister of Business, Adolfo Urso, and show his disagreement, since he considers that it violates European regulations. “It is illegitimate and illogical. If it continues like this, instead of opening a new route from any Italian city to Catania (Sicily), we will fly more to Spain. Do you know where they are cheering for the decree? In Malta, in Cyprus, in the Canary Islands… We will fly there more, instead of being imprisoned in Italy,” Wilson said in statements reported by the newspaper La Repubblica.
The manager has admitted that in the last year the cost of plane tickets has risen, but he attributed the increases to the greater demand after the pandemic and the fees charged by airports, while categorically denying that they are guided by a computer algorithm to set prices. “Even at the Harry Potter school they have understood that it is necessary to increase the supply of a product so that prices go down,” he ironized, in words collected by Efe.
According to the text distributed by the Executive, the regulation prohibits algorithms that increase the prices of national routes to and from the islands during periods of maximum demand, such as the one linked to seasonality, and if the ticket price is 200%. higher than the average flight fare. It is also considered an “unfair commercial practice” the use of automated procedures to determine the rates, based on the creation of web user profiles or the type of electronic devices used for reservations when it causes economic damage.
The measure has been widely criticized by airlines because it creates “a dangerous precedent for a sector whose liberalization has brought enormous benefits to Italian and European citizens in recent years,” according to the president of the Italian Association of Airline Companies. Low Cost (Aicalf), Alessandro Fonti