Milan Linate to Olbia is 506 km across the Tyrrhenian, about 1 h 3 min in the air, normally on a light jet. We publish no starting figure for this route: in the season the price turns on whether the aircraft can stay on the island, and that is a question about your dates rather than about the distance. Give us the dates and the passenger count and a written quotation follows within 30 minutes; the operations desk is staffed at every hour on +357 95 119759.
Just over an hour across the water to the Costa Smeralda on a light jet. Through the summer the day is decided at the island end rather than in the air: Olbia runs out of ramp parking long before it runs out of aircraft. Arranged 24/7.
REQUEST A QUOTEAn hour of flying that replaces most of a day. The alternative to this sector is a drive to a port, a ferry across to Sardinia and a drive up the coast, which is why the jet on this route is bought by people who are counting days rather than hours. The catch sits at the far end and only in summer: Olbia is a compact island field serving one of the most concentrated luxury coastlines in the Mediterranean, and in July and August the binding constraint there is the ramp rather than the runway.
Milan offers three fields to leave from and they start you in quite different parts of Lombardy. Sardinia offers one that makes sense for the Costa Smeralda. So the choice worth making carefully is at the Milan end, and the constraint worth planning around is at the other.
| Airport | Codes | Distance | Suits you if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milan Linate | LIN / LIML | 506 km | The default, and the field every figure on this page is measured from. Linate is unusually close to the centre of Milan for a jet airport, so most of the time this route saves is saved before the engines start. It has a single runway, it is slot controlled and it does not operate overnight, so name the departure hour you want at the enquiry rather than after the aircraft has been chosen. |
| Milan Malpensa | MXP / LIMC | departure alternative | Your day begins with an intercontinental aircraft putting you down at Malpensa, or Linate has nothing left in the hour you need. This is the long-haul field, north-west of the city and a longer drive from the centre; it earns its place here when a connection rather than an address is what you are working around. |
| Milan Bergamo | BGY / LIME | departure alternative | You are already east of Milan when the day starts - Brescia, Bergamo itself or the eastern lakes. Say so at the enquiry, because the drive from that side of Lombardy into the city takes longer than the flight you are buying, and there is no sense in making it twice. |
| Olbia Costa Smeralda | OLB / LIEO | arrival | The airport for Porto Cervo, Porto Rotondo, Baja Sardinia and the whole north-east coast, and where the planning on this route actually sits. In high summer the binding constraint is ramp parking rather than runway or slot, so many aircraft set their passengers down and leave rather than wait. Give us the hour you want to be on the ground and not only the date, and we confirm the handling window against it. |
Airport coordinates and codes: OurAirports open dataset, retrieved 23 August 2026. Distance measured great-circle from Milan Linate.
506 km sits comfortably inside the light jet band, so this crossing asks nothing unusual of the aircraft and the fleet on it is accordingly straightforward. About 1 h 3 min in the air. What actually decides the type in July is the hold: a party going to the Costa Smeralda for a fortnight travels with a fortnight's luggage, and that is a cabin-size question rather than a range one.
The light jet that covers this crossing with the most room to spare, and the one to ask for when there are more of you or more luggage than a small cabin will take. It is also among the most commonly available types in northern Italy in the season.
See the Phenom 300 ›Efficient, quick to turn round and well suited to an hour over water. The natural choice for four or five people going out for a long weekend rather than a month.
See the Citation CJ2 ›The most economical way to buy this sector, and unremarkable over an hour in the air. Worth asking about when the dates are firm and the budget is the thing you are managing.
See the Citation Bravo ›All three types are on our own fleet pages. Larger cabins can be arranged on this crossing too, and in the peak weeks their availability is settled by the same ramp constraint as everything else.
We publish no starting price for Milan to Olbia. On this route a printed figure would mislead more than it helped: flown in April and flown in the second week of August, the identical crossing is not the same product, and the difference is not in the flying. Tell us the dates and we confirm within 30 minutes.
What does get published, by other people, are hourly rates for the aircraft class. LunaJets publishes EUR 4,600 to 7,300 per hour for light and midsize jets in Europe (undated). Eurosky publishes from EUR 2,900 per hour (19 February 2026). Paramount Business Jets publishes USD 3,750 to 4,200 per hour (August 2026). They are worth having to sanity-check a quotation and no use at all for building one: multiply an hourly rate by 1 h 3 min and you have left out the crew day, the landing and handling at both ends and, in the season you are most likely flying in, the parking.
The dominant variable going out is where the aircraft sleeps once it has put you down. Released after the drop, it is one price. Held for you when Olbia has no ramp space overnight, it flies away, parks somewhere else and comes back for you at the end of the stay, and those two extra sectors are yours to pay for. In August that is routine rather than exceptional. It belongs in the quotation you read before you fly rather than in the invoice you read afterwards, so ask us to price it both ways and choose with the numbers in front of you.
It is also worth asking what is moving in the other direction. The seasonal swing between the northern Italian cities and the Sardinian coast sends aircraft back empty all summer, and a repositioning leg going your way is the one honest discount on this route.
Most of our routes have two seasons or none. This one has exactly one, it is short, and everything about booking it follows from that. The Costa Smeralda's hotels, restaurants and marinas run a compressed season, and the airport does the same.
| Period | What happens | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| November to April | The coast is closed and the airport is quiet. Much of what people fly to Sardinia for is shut, and the traffic through Olbia in these months is local and thin. | The easiest and cheapest weeks of the year to buy this crossing, and short notice is entirely realistic. If you are going out of season, there is no reason to book far ahead. |
| May | The first shoulder. The coast opens, the season has not started, and the fleet has not yet been committed to the summer. | The best combination of price and availability in the year. If your dates bend at all, this is the window worth bending them into. |
| June to September | The Mediterranean peak, and the weeks in which everybody wants to travel exactly the way you are travelling. Ramp parking at Olbia is rationed well before aircraft are, and August is the hardest fortnight of it. | Book several weeks out for an August weekend, and give us the arrival hour early rather than only the date, so that the handling window and the parking can be confirmed before you commit. Expect to be offered a drop-and-go, and ask what it saves. |
| October | The second shoulder. The coast empties as quickly as it filled and the fleet turns back towards the mainland for the winter. | Good value and easy availability again, but do not count on an empty leg going out: in these weeks the spare capacity is pointing north, back the way you came. |
Olbia is the airport for a coastline rather than for a city, and almost nobody stops at the terminal. Porto Cervo, Porto Rotondo and Baja Sardinia are all a short drive north, and in the peak weeks the last part of the journey is worth arranging at the same time as the first.
Porto Cervo, Porto Rotondo, Baja Sardinia and the marinas along the north-east coast are all a short drive from the field. Tell us where you are actually going and the ground transfer is arranged with the flight rather than after it.
Charter a jet ›In the peak weeks the roads north from Olbia are the slowest part of the day. We arrange the helicopter leg alongside the jet rather than leaving you to find one in August.
Helicopter charter ›The same island field is served from the Riviera and from London, and the aircraft that carries you out may well have come in on one of them.
Nice to Olbia ›Tell us your dates and how many of you there are. Your dedicated flight advisor will come back with aircraft options and a firm price.
All published routes are listed on the route index. Also useful: the fleet, current empty legs, jet sharing. The return leg is not published as a page of its own yet; ask us and we will quote it with the outbound.