easyJet and Ryanair suffer Italian flight ban

Both easyJet and Ryanair have complained to the European Commission regarding practices that they consider to be anti-competitive.

easyJet were due to begin flying between their base at Milan (Malpensa) to Olbia (Sardinia) last week, but were banned from doing so by the Italian authorities. The National Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC) in Italy refused to let easyJet fly as they claim this route should be covered by a Public Service Obligation, meaning that the authorities can decide which airlines operate on the route.

In a bid to avoid to the legislation, easyJet attempted to give tickets away free (the wording of the legislation suggests that it only applies to the sale of flights), however ENAC also prevented this. easyJet had already sold 13,000 seats on this new route, which will (at least for the meantime) be withdrawn.

Ryanair has suffered much the same problem on their route from Rome (Ciampino) to Alghero.