"Air Albania really acts as if it doesn't exist" This is how Leonard Kurti, a citizen who was left without a flight, without explanations and without any contact from the airline last month, describes his experience, even though he had purchased a ticket and showed up on time at Tirana International Airport.
He and a friend had tickets for the Tirana-Milan Malpensa flight. When they arrived at the airport, they discovered on the departures board that the flight had been canceled.
"I was forced to buy another Ryanair ticket to Bergamo, just so I wouldn't miss a medical appointment," Kurti tells Faktoje.al.
After the cancellation, he tried to contact the company through dozens of emails and phone calls. “Zero communication,” he says.
On his next trip, also in November, he noticed that Air Albania had canceled the next flight again. “An unacceptable situation,” Leonardi concludes.
But Leonard's situation was not an isolated case. Testimonies from dozens of citizens to Faktoje.al confirm that Air Albania has systematically repeated flight cancellations, leaving passengers stranded in the middle of the airport without any explanation or compensation.
The company's social media has also been flooded with complaints. Dozens of citizens are demanding an account of canceled flights on posts where comments are allowed. In some cases, like a video posted on Instagram on November 29, comments have been blocked.
Unannounced legal ban
Asked by Faktoje.al, the "Mother Teresa" International Airport claims that there is no notice of flight disruptions from Air Albania.
"We are only notified in cases of cancellations so that passengers can be notified," Ornela Bego explains to Faktoje.al.
However, the cancellations experienced by passengers are not operational problems. They are the result of a legal ban that has not been made public.
As of December 3, 2025, Air Albania is not allowed to fly. However, this information has not been made public by either the company or the Civil Aviation Authority.
Faktoje.al confirmed that Air Albania's operating license was suspended on December 3, due to the suspension of its Air Operator Certificate.
In the official response, the Civil Aviation Authority explains that the suspension does not have a fixed end date, but depends on the fulfillment of the company's obligations, for which a 6-month deadline has been set but it is not clear what they are. This means that Air Albania must fulfill its obligations by June 3, 2026.
"The CAA's decision to suspend the license means the suspension of air transport of passengers, cargo and mail," explains Civil Aviation.
Air Albania has not responded to a request for information by the time of publication of this article.
Ticket sales continue
While the license is suspended, Air Albania continues to sell tickets online.
Since November, the company has discontinued a large number of destinations it had operated to for years, including Vienna, Brussels, Athens, Bergamo, Bologna, Rome, Treviso, Verona, Geneva, and Ankara.
Only two routes are currently listed on the official website: Tirana–Milan and Tirana–Istanbul. Tickets are still available for sale for both destinations, with dates that extend beyond the period when the company stopped flying.
Faktoj tried to purchase a round-trip ticket from Tirana to Milan for January 8–10, but, during testing, the purchase could not be completed.
Flightradar data shows that the last flight to Milan took place on November 17, while the one to Istanbul took place on December 2.
But despite tickets on sale, data from flightradar shows that the last flight from the national airline to Milan was on November 17th.
Institutional failure
The mission of the Civil Aviation Authority is to guarantee an aviation environment in line with international standards, through continuous monitoring and interaction with operators.
But in the case of Air Albania, the institution leaves the "ball in the door" for the company and avoids direct responsibility to the public.
"The Civil Aviation Authority has taken the relevant decisions to suspend the Air Operator Certificate and Operating License, of which the operator has been informed. Based on these suspensions, the operator independently takes the relevant measures according to legal obligations," the CAA tells Faktoje.al
For economic expert Eduard Gjokutaj, this situation poses a direct danger to citizens.
"The responsible authorities must urgently intervene to protect consumers and creditors, while the company risks permanent closure. This case illustrates the need for stronger oversight of the state-owned aviation sector," says Gjokutaj.
Meanwhile, Iris Zanaj, a programmer by profession, adds that the economic damage to passengers could have been avoided by closing the company's website.
"The problem is that they are still selling tickets online and who knows what economic damage is being done. A request should be sent to AKEP to block the domain," explains Zanaj.
As of the publication of this article, AKEP has not responded to our inquiry about Air Albanian.
cONcluSiON
Founded in September 2018 as the national airline, "Air Albania" was presented as a project where the state would be the guarantor of the public interest with 10 percent of the shares through Albcontrol, 41 percent in the hands of "MDN Investment" and 49 percent by Turkish Airlines, the strategic partner that according to the government would provide legal, financial and technical security to the enterprise.
But at the end of November, the board of Turkish Airlines briefly announced that it had decided to sell all of its shares in Air Albania, without providing any explanation for the reasons for the departure.
Today, Air Albania is a shadow company. Active in the Central Bank, but without a financial balance sheet for 7 years. In search of passengers, but without planes in the air and without strategic partner Turkish Airlines, which abandoned the investment without much fanfare.
"The dream that took wings," as Prime Minister Edi Rama once called it, has remained on the sidelines, leaving behind a financial and moral bill that, as always, citizens are paying. /Faktoje.al/
