EasyJet is on the warpath again over Public Service Obligation routes, this time in Italy.The London Luton-based LCC confirmed yesterday that it lodged a formal appeal with the regional administrative court in Rome against the Italian Transport Ministry and Civil Aviation Authority over the right to operate service on the Milan Malpensa-Olbia, Sardinia, route.

EasyJet said it also filed a complaint with the European Commission citing anticompetitive behavior, as it maintains that as an EU-registered airline it has the right to offer scheduled flights between any two airports within the EU.

The Malpensa-Olbia route is part of the carrier's service from its first Italian base, launched last month (ATWOnline, March 10), which includes flights to Naples, Palermo and Olbia. However, "ENAC took the unprecedented step of writing to easyJet to request that the airline stop selling seats on the route" so it could impose PSO status, easyJet said. It already has sold 10,000 seats, which "underlines that there is more than sufficient demand to sustain normal competition."

EasyJet called ENAC's policy "absurd" and said that "it goes against every single PSO principle and is a clear breach of European law." GM Commercial-Southern Europe Arnaldo Muno said, "PSO routes have no place in a free market and such back-door protection should be consigned to the dustbin of history."

Last month, the carrier was "forced" to cancel plans to operate daily Paris Orly-Ajaccio service from July after being told that French authorities "had granted a monopoly to Air France/CCM under a Public Service Obligation" (ATWOnline, March 17).