Earlier this month, the Albanian Civil Aviation Authority announced that Air Albania, the national flag carrier airline of the country, will launch flights during the first week of September.
Albanian shareholder of Air Albania, Sinan Idrizi (above), also parroted the announcement via local media, informing stakeholders that the first aircraft to be completed is an Airbus 319 and will operate flights to the Istanbul-Tirana-Istanbul line. The news also told of two more A320 aircraft to be put in use following the initial schedule. Idrizi added this:
“In order to reduce the ticket prices, we have requested to self-provide raw materials. This means that we will build a parallel enterprise to provide the same service and quality. This is a practice that other companies have, such as Turkish Airlines, our support company.”
According to the Albanian government’s decision to set up Air Albania, 51 percent of the shares of Air Albania are Albanian, and 49 percent belong to the Turkish Airline Company. According to previous news, the initial destinations of Air Albania will be Pristina, Skopje, Podgorica, Sarajevo and Zagreb.
Last year Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama asked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his help in creating an Albanian national carrier.
The market in Albania has grown over the past three decades due mainly to demand from the large population of Albania migrants and their families. The number of passengers flying to and from Albania has almost doubled over the past decade. In 2016, 22,000 flights and 2.2 million passengers passed through the country’s only international airport.
