Easter increasingly expensive for flights and trains: tickets already at 400 euros for Sicily

Expensive flights again this year for the Easter holidays, with minimum ticket prices from north to south Italy that, if purchased today, reach over 400 euros for some routes for round trips.

This is denounced by Assoutenti, which conducted a monitoring of airfares last Thursday.

“Although there are still 20 days until Easter, flight prices are already very high to the point that departing on Friday, April 3 and returning on Tuesday, April 7, the minimum expense starts at 418 euros for the Genoa-Catania route, 343 euros for traveling from Milan to Crotone, 324 euros from Rome to Reggio Calabria (308 euros if departing from Milan) - explains Assoutenti -. More than 320 euros are needed to fly on the same dates to Catania from Turin, Florence, and Ancona. Among the highest prices is also the Naples-Olbia route (310 euros), Verona-Catania (297 euros), Milan-Brindisi (296 euros), Milan-Catania (290 euros), Verona-Palermo (282 euros), Bologna-Reggio Calabria (281 euros).”

Prices that do not include additional services such as carry-on luggage or seat selection, etc.

The issue of expensive flights is also addressed by Audc. “It couldn’t be otherwise. If the costs of some components of air transport (but not only) increase, perhaps the airlines decide to compress their profits and, maybe, share the burden between themselves and the service users? No way. They continue to profit while the end users have to bear all the costs. Not only that. But our passengers are burdened by cost increases that are always rounded up excessively,” emphasizes Vincenzo Donvito Maxia, president of Aduc, in a statement.

“Currently, the costs of fuels, which represent about 30% of expenses for air transport, have increased by 58% in the first week of war (Iata data), while the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world's oil supplies pass, does not promise a change in the trend of growth. Consequently, all prices in the so-called sector's induced increase as well, from onboard catering to that at airports, from luggage to all accessories. Increases that then add to those that travelers find in the locations they visit,” concludes Aduc.

It doesn't get any better on the train front: "a one-way trip (April 3) on a high-speed train, purchased today, costs at least 185 euros to travel with Italo from Turin to Reggio Calabria, 175 euros starting from Milan. With Trenitalia, it costs 120 euros from Milan to Lecce, 116 euros from Turin to Bari, 96 euros from Venice to Lecce, 92 euros from Genoa to Salerno," notes Assoutenti.

"These are fares that are set to rise further in the coming days due to increased demand from citizens wanting to return home during the holidays, but there is also another threat looming over Italian air travel and movements: fuel price increases and the losses incurred by airlines in recent days due to the closure of airspace are likely to soon be passed on to consumers in the form of higher fares, with a new wave of price hikes for tickets to all destinations," warns President Gabriele Melluso.