Sardinia opens aid tender for new airline routes at three airports

The Autonomous Region of Sardinia has opened a public tendering procedure for aid to airlines that launch new routes to and from three airports on the island in 2027 and 2028. The call is announced in a notice published in the Official Journal of the European Union of 28 October 2026 under reference C/2026/5717. The first application window runs for 30 days from the date of that publication.

The notice is a one-page announcement in the C series of the Official Journal, marked as a text with EEA relevance, and it gives formal notice of the launch of the procedure, described as aimed at “upgrading air connectivity with the Autonomous Region of Sardinia”. The instrument is built around the launch of new routes rather than around existing services, and its programming horizon covers the two calendar years 2027 and 2028. The regional authority is the body running the procedure; the Official Journal publication is what starts the clock on applications.

The three airports in scope

The notice identifies the eligible airports by their full official names:

• Alghero-Fertilia Riviera del Corallo airport
• Olbia Costa Smeralda airport
• Cagliari-Elmas Mario Mameli airport

Aid is tied to the launch of new routes “to and from” each of these three gateways, which in practice covers both inbound and outbound services. The notice itself does not set out route-level conditions, eligibility criteria or budget figures; those elements sit in the Italian-language tender documentation published by the region.

A thirty-day first window

Applications for aid under the first time window must be submitted within 30 days of the date of publication of the notice in the Official Journal of the European Union, meaning by 27 November 2026 on a straight count from 28 October. The notice does not open a single permanent call: any later application periods will be announced through a further notice on the website of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, and their timing will depend on the resources still available.

That structure gives carriers a firm date for the first round but leaves the rest of the 2027-2028 envelope to be released in stages. For an airline weighing a new Sardinian route, the practical consequence is that the first window is the only one with a confirmed deadline, and that later opportunities are contingent on how much of the aid budget is committed in this round.

Where to find the documents and who to ask

The full notice and its accompanying documentation are published in Italian, and the region makes them available from the date the announcement appears in the Official Journal:

• Official regional website: https://www.regione.sardegna.it, which carries the notice and related documentation
• Requests for the text of the notice, information or documentation: trasporti@pec.regione.sardegna.it
• European Legislation Identifier: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2026/5717/oj

The choice of the region’s certified e-mail address as the single contact point for the procedure means prospective applicants must route documentary requests through that channel before preparing a bid.

Why it matters

The tender sets the terms on which Sardinia will buy additional air connectivity for two consecutive years, at a moment when the island’s three main gateways depend heavily on routes opened and sustained with public support. Airlines now have a fixed 30-day window to enter the first round, while the region retains control over the pace of any further rounds through resource-dependent announcements on its own website. Publication in the Official Journal also fixes the legal starting point for the deadline, leaving carriers no ambiguity about when the countdown began.

Source: Official Journal of the European Union, C 2026/5717, 28 October 2026, C series, p. 1 (official reference: C/2026/5717).