On Thursday, 15 January 2026, Mayor Settimo Nizzi officially announced the airport’s new name: Olbia-Costa Smeralda-Prince Karim Aga Khan IV Airport. The recognition honours Mawlana Shah Karim’s contributions to the city and surrounding region in Sardinia, Italy.
Princess Zahra was present at the event and thanked city officials for the posthumous honour bestowed on her father.
“My father dedicated many years of his life to projects that he started in Costa Smeralda,” she said. “He deeply loved Sardinia and its people, its land, its mountains, its waters.”
“[He] also supported the creation of lasting institutions, which had a far greater impact than a simple injection of economic resources. And as always, he approached the development of the Smeralda coast as a long-term commitment with meticulous planning at every level.”
With the support and guidance of Mawlana Shah karim in the early 1960s, the region of Monti di Mola in Sardinia was transformed into La Costa Smeralda — the Emerald Coast, using local materials while preserving its natural heritage. When he first visited, it was a barren landscape with no roads or electricity.
Over the following years, a planning committee chaired by Mawlana Shah Karim helped to develop the local infrastructure to attract visitors and uplift the leisure industry in the region. A key part of this was to construct Olbia airport to facilitate access and strengthen connections with the rest of the world. Shah Karim also founded the airline Alisarda, based in Olbia in 1963, which later became Air Italy.
La Costa Smeralda grew to become a premier tourist destination, with restaurants, hotels, and sporting facilities, all while adhering to strict architectural standards. The committee stipulated that new buildings should be kept low so as to blend into the existing landscape.
Since then, the region has continued to pioneer sustainable ways to grow, switching to renewable energy, eliminating single-use plastics, and installing recycling stations. It has also experimented with solutions to sea pollution, and helped to raise awareness of the challenges facing marine life. The project is well-regarded as the first example of environmentally conscious tourism development in the Mediterranean.
Source: The.Ismaili
Further Reading: Italy: Karim Aga Khan IV and the Birth of Costa Smeralda
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