First flight of Air Albania to take place in September – Company to cover the region, Podgorica included
The Albanian national carrier Air Albania will have its first flight in the first week of September, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced.
The first test flight will take place on August 31.
The airliner will initially use an Airbus 319 on the Tirana-Istanbul route and after the company will add two larger A320 planes.
Air Albania was founded in November 2017 with the help of Turkish Airlines, which owns a 49% stake. The remaining 51% is in Albanian ownership.
Edi Rama, who personally took part in establishing the company, has announced that services from Tirana to Podgorica, Pristina, Skopje, Sarajevo and Zagreb will be launched.
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.
Edi Rama, who, participated personally in the establishment of the airline expressed his great gratitude to the Turkish president and the executive director of Turkish Airlines for their valuable assistance.
