Alghero - A Rough Guide

Ryanair are introducing a twice weekly flight  (Fri & Mon) flight from Ancona to Alghero from early June and there are the usual reasonably priced introductory fares. Great idea for a short break in the sun.

Ryanair will open a  new route to Alghero in Sardinia from Memmingen (approx 75kms west of Munich) . Flights begin in starting May 2009

Ryanair celebrated their new Memmingen (Munich West) Airport, seven new routes and 500,000 passengers by knocking 50% off its 1million lowest fares for travel across its European network in April, May and June which are available for booking from midnight tonight on the airlines website.

Ryanair is building up it’s Italian market and trying to take advantage of the poor state of Alitalia.

It said it was planning to open two new bases on Sardinia at Alghero and Cagliari, in March 2009. The two bases will create eight new domestic and 11 new international routes to and from the island.

Ryanaie-  Europe’s biggest low-cost carrier - also said it was also increasing its services between Rome Ciampino and the Milan region to five a day from late next month and was adding a new twice-daily domestic service between Rome and Trapani in Sicily in December.

Alghero and Cagliari will become the group’s sixth and seventh bases in Italy with locally based aircraft in addition to Rome, MilanBergamo, Pisa, Bologna and Forli.

It said it would base one 189-seat Boeing737-800 in Alghero and would operate a total of 18 routes to and from the north Sardinian city with two aircraft based at the Cagliari base offering 19 routes initially.

Flights to Alghero Airport in Sardinia from the UK and Ireland

Flights to Alghero From Liverpool Tuesdays and Saturdays Ryanair :depart 07.05
Dublin to Alghero Ryanair : Depart Sat 15.20 , Monsay and Friday 15.55
London Stansted to Alghero :Ryanair - Daily times vary.
East Midlands to Alghero : Ryanair Mar to oct depart 16.45 Wed and Sun

Charter companies
Gatwick Thomsonfly Sat 07.45 May to Oct
Birmingham Flybe Depart 6.15 Sat May -Oct
Southampton Flybe Sat 6.30 may- oct

Don’t be expecting too much in the way of food, drink or shops in the departure area of Alghero airport.
There are a couple of vending machines, toilets and seats - and that is it.
If you want someting to eat or drink apart from a chocolate bar or a fizzy drink - then stay outside the departure area as long as you can. In the main waiting area of the airport at Alghero - there are two cafes and two small shops selling paper and magazines etc. Don’t expect too many English language reading material - on my visit they were either sold out or never had any English papers. There were a few UK magazines - but not many

When departing from Alghero Airport there is one tip that may avoid some confusion and emabarrasment.
After you have checked in your hold luggage and had the labels stuck on etc. - the check in staff make you take the suitcases back and you have to take them over to be put through a scanner . After the scanner the bags go on a conveyor belt to be loaded by staff on to the planes.
I saw at least one unfortunate couple who were very confused and ended up taking the big bags into the boarding gates to carry on to the plane! Of course they were stopped and had to rush back and try and get the suitcases through the scanner and hope they got on to the plane. This seems a very strange practice - something I have not seen at any other airport - but I haven’t been to that many airports. Why can they not just send all the bags via conveyor belts to be scanned. Maybe this was a temporary measure - I hope so!