Boating, aeronautics, training and internationalisation: the challenges of Cipnes Gallura

Boating, aeronautics, international markets and universities for high-level training. Challenges that the Region and CIPNES, a body for the support and enhancement of enterprises in Gallura, play as part of a growth process for enterprises that looks to international markets.

A strategy illustrated during an initiative promoted in Milan in the context of Milan Design Week by Cipnes Gallura, UniOlbia, the University of Cagliari and the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, dedicated to the internationalisation path of the Sardinian nautical industry and skills development.

The starting point is the fact that half of the private fleet passing through the Mediterranean sails on its north-eastern coast in summer. According to calculations by the Centro Studi Cipnes Gallura, based on data from the Maritime Directorate of North Sardinia, 3,114 unique superyachts (over 24 metres) were registered in the waters of North East Sardinia in the period June-September 2025, with a growth of +15.8% compared to the same period in 2024. A figure that, according to the CIPNES Study Centre, takes on international significance: "in fact, it represents about half of the fleet sailing in the Mediterranean during the summer season and, if compared to the global figure of 6,174 superyachts surveyed worldwide, it highlights how an extraordinary share of the world fleet is concentrated in Sardinian waters. An element that confirms the island's role as one of the main global poles of luxury yachting". And that's not all: another aspect concerns aviation: 'In 2025, 15,464 private jet movements were recorded, equal to around 7,700 unique aircraft, for a total of 31,439 passengers. Olbia is today Italy's third airport for private aviation, after Milan Linate and Rome Fiumicino'.

Precisely in this scenario, as emphasised by Cipnes president Livio Fideli, there is a need to 'build a system capable of attracting investment and training qualified human capital, strengthening cooperation between institutions and companies'.

Aldo Carta, Director General Cipnes Gallura and President UniOlbia, also agrees. "There is an important value here at Design Week, it is an international platform for the so-called jump". Then another passage, linked to the need to 'develop an integrated regional network. Alongside research and innovation, training as a strategic lever to support the growth of the nautical and blue economy'. It is certainly no coincidence that two new courses of study have been launched for this very area: a master's degree in Nautical Engineering and a professional degree course in Industrial Electrical and Aeronautical Technologies. Tools, as stressed, 'to strengthen the link between education and the production system'. These are courses that integrate engineering, innovation and design (hence the participation in Milan Design Week), is the comment of the CIPNES representatives, "in line with Sardinia's international positioning summarised in the claim 'Sardegna Blu Design', underlining the link between the sea, industry and design culture".