Olbia · Aviation

Flying private into Olbia

A private flight into the North-East ends at Olbia Costa Smeralda, and it does not end at the main building: the airport has a dedicated private-aviation terminal, Eccelsa. Around that terminal a whole summer market has organised itself, and it splits into two kinds of company.

Based on the island, or brokered from abroad

The first kind has aircraft on the ground. Elicompany keeps an actual base inside the Eccelsa terminal and flies its own fleet — Agusta A109S Grand, Bell 427, Bell 407, Bell 505, Bell 206 — rather than reselling someone else's. Companies like this are few; most of the names in the market are not physically here.

The second kind is the international broker with an Olbia route in the catalogue. LunaJets works from Geneva with access to more than 4,800 aircraft; PrivateFly — the UK broker now operating as FXAIR — runs a dedicated Olbia page; AlbaJet quotes the island from Austria, listing Rome at 26 minutes from Olbia, Naples at 38, Milan at 49. Neither model is wrong. One sells proximity and its own machines; the other sells reach and comparison.

The published numbers

Most of this market answers "quote on request", which makes the exceptions useful. According to the sample fares published by LunaJets, Olbia–Nice starts at €6,500 and Olbia–Paris at €11,200. PrivateFly publishes Nice–Olbia from €5,900 return and London Luton–Olbia from £15,500 return. FlairFly, which treats Olbia as a key operating hub, publishes indicative rates from €3,500 an hour for jets and €2,500 for helicopters. All of these are "from" figures — aircraft, dates and season move them — but they give a floor to a conversation that otherwise has none.

August, and the last ten minutes

LunaJets identifies June to August as the peak, with May, early June and September notably less crowded — which is the island's own rhythm. In the peak weeks the flying is arranged ahead, not on arrival week; the aircraft is rarely the problem, the calendar is. And the trip does not end at the terminal: from its base there, Elicompany puts Porto Cervo ten minutes away by helicopter. The last leg deserves the same planning as the first.