While Air Albania was expected to resume flights to Istanbul today, as it was possible to buy tickets online until Friday morning, around noon they were canceled again.
Air Albania's website now shows that there are no flights until Monday, and they are expected to resume on Tuesday afternoon, December 16. Sources close to the company said that the company has not gone bankrupt, but is working to resolve the problems and resume flights, although they were initially scheduled to resume today.
This is the second time in two weeks that the company has canceled flights, but has continued to sell tickets.
Travel agencies say that they are now afraid of cancellations and are no longer buying tickets with Air Albania to Istanbul, while transit trips with Turkish Airlines are being made through Podgorica or Pristina airports.
Air Albania handled a high flow of travel to Istanbul with two to three flights per day, both for direct connections for those traveling for trade, tourism, and other purposes, and for the fact that Europe's largest airport is an important transit hub with the entire world.
According to official data from Tirana International Airport, for 2024, around 408 thousand passengers traveled to and from Istanbul from Rinas, making it the sixth destination with the highest traffic, after Milan+Bergamo, London, Rome, Bologna, Treviso, Pisa.
The problems with the operator began in mid-November, after Turkish Airlines announced that it had decided to sell its entire 49% stake in Air Albania. For two weeks now, it has not been possible to book tickets through Turkish Airlines (for transit trips), while tickets from Tirana to Istanbul are being booked by Air Albania itself. But even when they are booked, they are only being cancelled and there is no information about the protection of passengers' rights, who should receive a refund, even though Air Albania was a state initiative and the government owns 10% of the shares through the state-owned company Albcontrol.
In 2023, Air Albania was the second largest operator in the country, with 7% of the market. However, in 2024, it dropped to third place, with a weight of 3.4% according to the number of passengers. The company's highest dominance was recorded in 2021, when it managed to take 18% of the market.
Subsequently, competition from Wizz Air and Ryanair affected the activity of this operator in destinations other than Istanbul.
The company has never submitted a balance sheet. According to data from the Tax Office, the company's annual turnover was around 3.8 billion lek in 2021, to reach around 5 billion lek in 2022 and 5.5 billion lek in 2023.
Në vitin 2024, të ardhurat janë rreth 4 miliardë lekë, sipas të dhënave indirekte nga Tatimet. Kompania ka rezultuar historikisht me humbje të larta, duke e kthyer atë sot në një shoqëri praktikisht të falimentuar./Monitor.al/
