FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
In the spring, the Albanian-Turkish airline announced that it was resuming its operations. But just a few months later, Air Albania is facing lawsuits. But these are not its only problems...
The conditions are actually good: The flight business to Albania has been booming for years, Wizz Air and Ryanair are seeing unprecedented passenger growth, and Tirana Airport expects around 12 million passengers by 2025.
While there are many winners from the aviation boom in Albania, state-owned company Air Albania, in which Turkish Airlines also has a stake, has been a consistent loser since its founding in 2018.
The dominance of low-cost carriers and the lack of government support brought the airline to the brink of bankruptcy.
And after finally opening routes to 12 destinations within a very short period of time in the spring of 2025, this turned out to be too much: After just a few flights, most of the routes were discontinued.
The Boeing 737-800 flew for Air Albania for just one month.
In recent weeks, rumors have circulated in regional media about an imminent closure of Air Albania.
Numerous flight cancellations due to cancellation of offered destinations, as well as reports of unpaid employee salaries, have fueled these rumors recently.
The Boeing 737-800, registered UR-SQO, leased from Sky Up in February, flew for Air Albania for only a month before the Ukrainian airline terminated the contract.
A second aircraft prepared for the operation was never put into service.
Sky Up raises serious allegations against Air Albania
In response to aeroTELEGRAPH’s question, Sky Up stated: “Under the terms of the contract, the company undertook to provide two aircraft for a two-year period. Air Albania systematically failed to fulfill its contractual obligations, especially with regard to payment discipline”. There were delays in initial payments and advance payments. It was also revealed “that Air Albania had simultaneously signed a contract with another airline for the same flight schedule that was planned for Sky Up’s aircraft”.
The Ukrainian airline further stated that this prevented it from implementing other projects. “While Air Albania used aircraft from another partner, Sky Up’s aircraft remained grounded, causing the company direct financial losses.”
Therefore, Sky Up initiated legal action, a lawsuit was filed, and a hearing is scheduled for December 2025.
Report of another lawsuit against Air Albania
As the CH Aviation portal recently reported on this topic, the American leasing company Gat Aircraft and Engine Leasing Limited (GA Telesis) has reportedly filed another lawsuit in the High Court of England and Wales against Air Albania as the first defendant and Turkish Airlines as the second defendant for alleged breaches of lease agreements for two previously operated Airbus A320s.
According to the lawsuit, the Albanian airline is said to have stopped paying rent for aircraft with registration numbers ZA-ASM and ZA-MMK in March 2025.
GA Telesis also claims that Air Albania failed to fulfill other obligations to third parties, including Eurocontrol. Therefore, the lessor terminated the contracts.
Air Albania flies with aircraft from Fly 2 Sky and Dan Air
Air Albania does not currently operate its own aircraft, but continues to rely on leased aircraft in the form of two A320-200s from Fly 2 Sky (LZ-FSA) and Dan Air (YR-DSE) on its remaining network of flights to Istanbul, Ankara, Bologna, Milan and Verona.
The airline did not respond to aerotelegraph's question regarding the rumors and allegations./ aerotelegraph
Lini një Përgjigje