Air Albania, the country's new national carrier which is set to launch next year with assistance from Turkish Airlines, plans to initially serve several cities in the former Yugoslavia. The Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, who has been personally involved in the airline's set-up, noted that services will be established from Tirana to Podgorica, Pristina, Sarajevo, Skopje and Zagreb. In the region, the Albanian capital is already linked with ten weekly flights to Ljubljana by Adria Airways and six weekly services to Belgrade by Air Serbia over the winter season. The city has proven successful for both airlines, providing them with high volumes of connecting traffic.
The Albanian Prime Minister, who was in Turkey this week to finalise details for the new carrier, noted, "It has been our objective to establish an Albanian carrier. I am very grateful to both the President of Turkey and the Executive Director of Turkish Airlines for providing us with such precious assistance. We are now close to finalising this project, and we are very hopeful that the first flights will begin soon. I do not want to talk about deadlines today, but, it is certain that with the help of our friends, which is not limited to technical assistance, but rather a broad spectrum of services, we will finally make an Albanian airline, that will provide the same quality of service as Turkish Airlines, a reality". Mr Rama added, "The new airline will help strengthen regional connectivity with flights to Pristina, Skopje, Podgorica, Sarajevo and Zagreb, as well as points in western Europe".
None of the cities in the former Yugoslavia that Air Albania plans to launch are currently linked with Tirana. Last year, Croatia Airlines outlined that the Albanian capital would become its base as part of an initiative to station aircraft throughout the region, however, the plans never materialised. Both Adria Airways and Air Serbia have provided connections from Tirana to the region over the past years. Apart from services between Ljubljana and the Albanian capital, Adria also offers nonstop flights from Tirana to Frankfurt and Munich. It previously maintained operations to Brussels and Paris as well but the flights were later suspended. Adria is currently the third busiest airline in the country with a market share of 5%. On the other hand, the Tirana route has proved to be a solid feeder for Air Serbia's flights to New York.
If this is serious and they launch flights it will impact Adria the most. They might have to close their base in TIA.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteTIA is not Adria's base. The aircraft that is based in PRN operates flights to MUC and FRA.
DeleteThe former management planned to base a plane in TIA in 2016 but they were replaced and were unable to follow through with their plans.
DeleteIs there much point to flights between Tirana and Pristina? Isn't there a new highway between these two cities.
ReplyDeleteBelle Air used to fly PRN-TIA but it was on and off from my recollection.
DeleteI never understood why Croatia Airlines isn't flying to Tirana. They could get so much connecting passengers. Instead now some Albanian airline will be flying. They chose cities where there are now flights from Tirana.
ReplyDeleteI think they did fly to Tirana a long time ago.
DeleteLack of vision. That's why. They also fly to Pristina seasonal twice per week.
DeleteWell this ends any hopes and dreams of Turkish Airlines setting up an airline in Macedonia or again investing in a Bosnian airlines.
ReplyDeleteHopefully TK does a better job at running this airline then they did with B&H Airlines.
DeleteTK failed because Bosnian government was not cooperative, not because TK had bad ideas for the Bosnian market.
DeleteSure, that was the only reason...
DeleteWell tell me what were the other reasons?
DeleteTK was not interested in BH at all. They killed them on the SJJ-IST route and did not follow the original plans they set out for the airlines.
DeleteCom'on man.
DeleteYes, TK was terrified of JA and their two hour Atr service from SJJ.
DeleteIt's surprising that Montenegro Airlines has never flown to TIA considering the size of the local Albanian population.
ReplyDeleteAren't the majority of Albanians in Montenegro from Kosovo?
DeletePodgorica-Tirana is less than 3 hours by car or bus.
DeleteThat isn't convenient at all. The roads are not that great and you have to count the wait at the border.
DeleteAre their fleet plans known?
ReplyDeleteThey will take some old B737s from Turkish Airlines. I assume they will also have some regional aircraft, but not sure which one.
Delete737 is way too big for these ex-yu routes in my opinion.
DeleteA plane like the ATR would be ideal.
DeleteI thought, that they will lauch also flights to Italy and arabian world: Tirana-Kairo, Tirana-Tripolis, Tirana-Beirut, Tirana-Ankara.
ReplyDeleteI would think Italy is a priority.
DeleteIntereating, but why the interest for exYu?
ReplyDeleteWasted money on an out of date project. Better that they gave that cash to a LCC.
ReplyDeleteYes, while we are at it we should ban all full service carriers and declare Wizz Air as the only airline allowed to fly to the region.
DeleteJeez there is a world outside of LCCs. Not everyone thinks that a plane ride should be the same as a bus ride.
TIA-TGD has disaster written all over it. The distance is just over 150 km and I doubt their prices will be low enough in order to steal some passengers from bus companies.
ReplyDeleteAll these ex-YU adventures are bound to fail.
+1
DeleteAll these ex-YU adventures are bound to fail.
DeleteThat's what I keep telling Wizz! Forget ex-YU, focus on FRA-MUC, MUC-DUS, FRA-TXL etc.
Ex-YU adventures as in flights from TIA to the region without any feed on either end.
DeleteAs for your other proposal, Wizz Air is launching daily LTN-LCA so let's see how they cope with massive competition there, especially from British Airways and Cobalt. Norwegian was butchered a while ago.
Немања довољно си паметан да ти не треба објашњавати разлику иѕмеђу летова од Енглеске за Кипар и летова унутар главних аеродрома у Немачкој. Јави се кад Виз скупи храброст да почне један од три наведена лета.
DeleteДалеко да од тога да их оправдавам или браним. Сматрам да је њихов ,успех' заснован примарно на лешинарењу и на пикирању слабијих играча како би их уништили и преузели тржиште. Довољно је да се сетимо како су се понашали када су ушли на српско тржиште.
DeleteСпоменуо сам лет из Лутона за Ларнаку јер мислим да неће успети да се изборе за део колача посебно јер је ово први пут да повезују два града изван класичне источне Европе и да сада морају привући путнике који не гледају како да уштеде сваки цент те сумњам да ће толерисати њихово цигањење.
Мислим да Визер неће још скоро летети унутар западне Европе. Не могу да се носе са играчима тамо. Што се тога тиче мислим да исто мислимо.
Edi Rama is trolling us again
ReplyDeleteRama does what Erdogan tells him.
DeleteThat's true, bad politics!
DeleteWell now we know why Rama and Vucic are such good friends. They both like playing airline managers.
ReplyDeleteBest. Comment. Ever...
Delete+1000 :) :) :)
DeleteHahaha. Good one! :)
DeleteDidn't Angela Merkel go to Abu Dhabi during final Air Berlin days to arrange breakup and partial takeover by Lufhansa? Every government likes playing airline manager when in their interest.
DeleteAnd that is why Anela Merkel, like Vučić, announce new routes, new planes, even will to take 747.
DeleteDanke, you got it! Sanela Merkel at Christening ceremony for Lufthansa 747-8:
Deletehttps://youtu.be/kSNvqOoE_9c?t=14s
That livery won't look to appealing when it gets painted onto an aircraft.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see how this new Turkish venture in the Balkans turns out.
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to Albanian Airlines? At one point they planned to start flights to Sarajevo and Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteThey collapsed under the weight of their unprofitability.
DeleteDidn't some company from Azerbaijan buy them?
DeleteNo, some Turks bought them.
DeleteOff topic news: Adria Airways Switzerland will terminate its flights from Lugano to Rome and Geneva. Ticino's economic chamber is worried about that.
ReplyDeleteVery old news
DeleteTirana is doing well for Air Serbia, particularly with New York like the article rightly says. I think it is a highly untapped market (similar to Sarajevo). Whether there is demand for flights to cities like Zagreb and Podgorica I don't know, but it will be interesting how this airline develops, particularly under the guide of Turkish Airlines.
ReplyDeleteThat’s the best marketing department could do with its livery? Cold, uninspiring colours with a logo that looks like it belongs in the Cold War era. Dreadful!
ReplyDeleteAnd the name is so unoriginal. ‘Air’ anything these days does not appeal to the general public.
DeleteWhy not ‘Alba-kadabra’? Have a genie in a bottle on the tail for for good luck.
Positive thing: You can travel with ID ONLY from Skopje or Podgorica.
ReplyDeleteNegative thing: Turkish influence in the Balkans!
Waiting for one of the fanboys to say they should fly Tirana - Nis :D
ReplyDeleteYou shouldn't wait as that city combination makes no sense.
DeleteMost of the suggested ones for Nis around here don't :D Let me remind you Doha-Nis which some here are constantly suggesting.
Deletegood luck
ReplyDeleteThis will influence Air Serbia and Adria mostly.
ReplyDeleteAdria will have hard time with Ljubljana flights (for sure they will downsize frequencies on that route). Also not good news for their MUC and FRA flights, not so much as LJU, but for sure not good.
Air Serbia will have less transfer passengers from TIA as there will be more direct flights from TIA + most of connections will go via IST as Turkish is partner (even JFK and other USA flights and some longer West European one like London)
There are already flights from Tirana by TK. Those that do fly with JU to New York do it because it is cheaper than flying with TK via Istanbul.
DeleteI think the biggest problem to JU is themselves, with the way they are dropping frequencies, the sudden changes they are making as well as the inability to boost the ATR fleet to grow regional frequencies.
DeleteThey seem to do quite ok in the Albanian market. An advantage that JU has is the Albanian speaking staff in BEG as well as cheap, quick, competitive connections in BEG.
Tirana, just like the rest of the ex-YU cities has issues with seasonality and TIA isnt really designed as a transfer hub, meaning it will have to rely on O&D travel in a small, poor market.
Moguce je da ce Adria eventualne gubitke u Tirani, kompezovati najavljenim otvaranjem Pule
DeleteA ko je to najavio? Anonymous ovde?
DeleteAlene ima li insajderskih informacija koje mozes podeliti
DeleteNaravno da Turkish leti za Tiranu i sada ali:
Delete1. Tada će niz linija biti non-stop i manje putnika će putovati via BEG.
2. Turkish će biti "partner" što znači da će se daleko veći broj putnika "motivirati" na transfere preko IST.
Insajderskih informacija o čemu?
Alene preterujes. Air Serbia i Adria vec prevoze ostatak koji ostane posle AZ i OS tako da je logicno da oni prvi osete ovo... sto sumnjam da hoce.
DeleteSuvise je IST daleko da bi nudili bas tako konkurentne cene.
I smellther scenarion like with Macedonian National carrier. Turks will vanish after 5 years.
ReplyDeleteWith projects like this Turkey buys influence in the Balkans. Who in the Balkans will go against Turkey if there is some international or regional issue at stake? Nobody, especially; Bulgaria, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, and Bosnia.
DeleteTrue dat.
DeleteIs this legal under pre-accession EU rules? And what is it with governments getting involved with setting up business ventures that private enterprises should be doing? You never hear of a government setting up a bus transport company. This will become a hotbed for corruption and cronyism.
ReplyDeleteIt is legal if the foreign non-Eu company has a stake of less than 50%.
DeleteOk, but I am also talking about the Albanian government. Does this mean that Albania can pump endless amounts of tax payer money into this project? Other airlines could complain if there pax decrease.
DeleteEdi Rama is prime minister of Albania ����
ReplyDeleteNot a president of Albania ����
Tirana Podgorica will not work. Tirana Pristina is political. Tirana Skopje quite interesting. Tirana Sarajevo great! Tirana Zagreb really needed. Low prices please to make this work.
ReplyDelete