Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza

Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza (Albanian: Aeroporti Ndërkombëtar i Tiranës Nënë Tereza, IATA: TIA, ICAO: LATI), often referred to as the Rinas International Airport, is one of the two main international airports of the Republic of Albania. It serves the city of Tirana, its metropolitan area, and surrounding region in the county of Tirana. The airport is named in honour of the Albanian Roman Catholic nun and missionary, Mother Teresa. It is located 6 nautical miles (11 kilometres; 6.9 miles) northwest of Tirana, in the municipality of Krujë, Durrës County.[5][6] It offers international connections primarily within Europe, with the most frequent routes to Milan, Rome, London and Istanbul.

Tirana International Airport
Mother Teresa

Aeroporti Ndërkombëtar i Tiranës
Nënë Tereza
Summary
Airport typePublic
Owner/OperatorTirana International Airport SHPK and Kastrati Group[1]
ServesTirana, Tirana County, Albania
LocationRinas, Durrës County, Albania
Hub for
Elevation AMSL108 ft / 33 m
Coordinates41°24′53″N 19°43′14″E
Websitetirana-airport.com
Map
TIA
Location in Albania
TIA
Location in the Mediterranean
TIA
Location in Europe
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
17/35 2,750 9,022 Asphalt
Statistics (2021)
Passengers2,923,553[2]
Passenger change 20–21 123.1%
Aircraft movements26,152[2]
Movements change 20–21 73%
Source: Albanian AIP at EUROCONTROL[3] LATI Airport record[4]

The airport serves as the main hub for the country's flag carrier, Air Albania, and also for both Albawings and Wizz Air.[7] It is the largest and busiest airport in Albania, with the other being Kukës International Airport located in the northeast of the country. Tirana offers a regularly scheduled passenger service and is the seventh busiest Balkan airport.

History

Early development

The airport was constructed from 1955 to 1957. Tirana had commercial airline services before. Domestic aviation started in 1926 when German airline Adria-Aero-Lloyd obtained a monopoly for domestic air routes in the country and begin servicing Tirana, Shkodër, Korçë and Vlorë. These operations proved unprofitable, and the airline sold its rights to Italian company Ala Littoria which opened regular routes in 1935 between Tirana to Shkodër, Kukës, Peshkopia, Kuçova, Vlorë, and Gjirokastra.[8] In 1938, the Yugoslav carrier Aeroput introduced regular commercial flights linking Tirana with Belgrade, Serbia with a landing in Dubrovnik, Croatia.[9]

After the Second World War and installation of an isolationist communist regime in Albania, air transportation was rare. From 1944 and 1948 there was a service to Belgrade, but after the break of relations with Yugoslavia, until 1953, there was only a twice-a-month connection to Budapest operated by Soviet-Hungarian company Maszovlet.[8] From 1953 and 1955 there was no air service, until February 1955 when a route to Moscow was inaugurated, followed thereafter to other Eastern-European capitals. In the 1970s, Tirana was one of the first European cities to be served by China's CAAC Airlines, with a weekly flight to Beijing via Bucharest and Tehran. In the late 1980s there were six airlines flying to Tirana, with a total of nine round-trips per week.[8]

With the collapse of communism in Albania in 1991 and subsequent liberalisation of travel restrictions abroad for Albanians, the number of airlines operating at the airport increased rapidly. In 1999 there were 8,249 flights and 356,823 passengers, seven times more than in 1991.[8]

Contemporary

The air traffic equipment and facilities of the airport have been heavily modernised, following investments by Tirana International Airport SHPK, a consortium led by Hochtief AirPort. Hochtief assumed management of the airport on 23 April 2005, for a 20-year concession period.[10]

The concession included the construction of a completely new passenger terminal and various infrastructure improvements, among them the construction of a new access road, new parking lots, and a bridge over the old airport access road.[11] The expansion resulted in an increased number of passengers per annum, estimated at 1.5 million passengers for 2009.[12][13] The number of passengers effectively increased to more than 1.5 million in 2010.[14]

The terminal building and its second expansion, the cargo building, its landscaping, and its carpark canopies were designed by Malaysian architect Hin Tan of Hintan.[15]

In December 2016, the Airport announced that it has served 2 million passengers during 2016, reaching its second milestone.[16]

Ownership

In 2017 China Everbright Limited became the sole owner of Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza. After reaching an agreement with the Albanian Government to end its monopoly on international flights from Albania, Hochtief AirPort sold the operating of Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza to China Everbright Limited,[17] a company specializing in asset management, direct investment, brokerage and investment banking.[18] On December 25, 2020, Kastrati group bought all the shares of the airport from China Everbright Limited for 71 million euros.

Airlines and destinations
AirlinesDestinations
Aegean Airlines Athens
Seasonal: Heraklion, Mykonos (begins 13 July 2022), Thessaloniki (begins 2 July 2022)
Air Albania[19] Athens,[20] Bergamo, Bologna, Düsseldorf,[20] Istanbul, London–Stansted,[20] Milan–Malpensa, Pisa, Rome–Fiumicino, Verona
Seasonal: Antalya (begins 2 July 2022),[21] Bodrum (begins 1 July 2022)[22]
Air Cairo Seasonal charter: Hurghada,[23] Sharm El Sheikh[23]
Air France Seasonal: Paris–Charles de Gaulle (begins 9 July 2022)[24]
Air Serbia[25] Belgrade
Albawings[26] Ancona, Bari, Bergamo (resumes 14 June 2022), Bologna, Florence (resumes 3 May 2022), Forlì,[27] Genoa, Milan–Malpensa (resumes 13 June 2022), Perugia, Pisa, Rimini (resumes 4 June 2022),[28] Venice, Verona
Seasonal: London–Stansted
Seasonal charter: Yerevan[29]
Austrian Airlines Vienna
British Airways London–Heathrow[30]
Buzz Seasonal charter: Gdańsk,[31] Katowice,[32] Poznań,[31] Wrocław[31]
Corendon Airlines Seasonal charter: Antalya, Bodrum
easyJet Geneva, London–Gatwick[33]
Enter Air Seasonal charter: Katowice,[31] Warsaw–Chopin[34]
European Air Charter Seasonal charter: Sofia[35]
Eurowings[36] Seasonal: Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf,[37] Stuttgart[38]
Finnair Seasonal charter: Helsinki (begins 21 May 2022)[39]
flydubai Dubai–International[40]
flynas Riyadh[41]
Seasonal: Jeddah[42]
GullivAir Sofia[43]
Israir Airlines Seasonal: Tel Aviv[44]
ITA Airways Rome–Fiumicino
Jet Time Seasonal charter: Copenhagen (begins 15 May 2022),[45] Helsinki (begins 5 June 2022)
LOT Polish Airlines[46] Warsaw–Chopin
Lufthansa Frankfurt, Munich[47]
Norwegian Air Shuttle Seasonal: Copenhagen (begins 29 June 2022),[48] Oslo
Pegasus Airlines Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen
Seasonal charter: Antalya[49]
Scandinavian Airlines Seasonal charter: Copenhagen,[50] Oslo[51] Stockholm–Arlanda[52]
SkyUp Seasonal: Kharkiv,[53] Kyiv–Boryspil, Lviv,[53] Odessa (begins 31 May 2022), Zaporizhzhia[53]
Smartwings Seasonal: Prague[54]
Seasonal charter: Warsaw–Chopin[55]
SunExpress Seasonal charter: Antalya[49]
Swiss International Air Lines Zürich
Transavia Paris–Orly
TUI fly Belgium Brussels
TUI fly Nordic Seasonal charter: Stockholm–Arlanda[56] (begins 15 May 2022)
Ukraine International Airlines Seasonal: Kyiv–Boryspil[57]
Ural Airlines Seasonal: Moscow–Domodedovo,[58] Moscow–Zhukovsky, Samara,[59] Yekaterinburg[60] (all suspended)
Wizz Air[61] Abu Dhabi,[62] Ancona,[63] Barcelona,[64] Bari, Basel/Mulhouse, Beauvais, Bergamo, Berlin, Billund,[65] Bologna, Budapest, Catania, Charleroi, Cologne/Bonn,[64] Dortmund, Eindhoven, Friedrichshafen,[66] Genoa,[63] Hahn, Hamburg, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, Liverpool,[65] London–Luton, Lyon (begins 12 September 2022),[67] Madrid,[65] Malmö, Memmingen, Milan–Malpensa, Nice,[68] Nuremberg (begins 5 July 2022),[67] Perugia (begins 6 July 2022),[63] Pescara,[63] Pisa, Rimini, Rome–Fiumicino, Sandefjord, Stockholm–Skavsta, Treviso, Turin, Verona, Vienna
Seasonal: Katowice (begins 16 June 2022),[69] Warsaw–Chopin (begins 4 July 2022),[67] Wrocław (begins 1 August 2022)[67]

Statistics

Traffic
Annual passenger traffic at TIA airport. See source Wikidata query.
Passenger, aircraft operations and cargo statistics at Nënë Tereza Airport
Year Passengers Change Aircraft Operations Change Cargo
(metric tons)		 Change
2005785,00020.77%15,400N.A.N.A.N.A.
2006906,10315.43%15,856 2.96%2,435N.A.
20071,105,77022.04%18,25815.15%3,83257.37%
20081,267,04114.58%19,194 5.13%2,49734.84%
20091,394,68810.07%20,064 4.53%2,265 9.29%
20101,536,82210.19%20,768 3.51%2,355 3.97%
20111,817,07318.24%22,98810.69%2,65612.78%
20121,665,331 8.35%20,52810.70%1,87529.41%
20131,757,342 5.53%19,942 2.85%2,16415.41%
20141,810,305 3.02%17,928 3.02%2,32413.53%
20151,997,044 10.3%20,876 16.4%2,2294.1%[6]
20162,195,100 9.9%22,352 7.1%2,2001%[70]
20172,630,338 19.8%24,336 9%2,2663%[2]
20182,947,172 12%25,462 3%2,245 0.9%[71]
20193,338,147 13%28,270 11%2,372 5%[72]
20201,310,614 60,7%15,280 46,8%1,796.8 24.3%[73]
20212,923,533 123.1%26,152 73%1,983 10%[74]
(01.01-31.03) 2022760,826 215.1%6,384 103.4%482.3 7.3%[75]

Busiest routes
Most frequent routes at Tirana Airport
Rank Destination Airport(s) Number of
Passengers
2021[74]		 Top carriers
1 London LGW, LHR, LTN, STN 223,145 Air Albania, Albawings, British Airways, easyJet, Wizz Air
2 Milan MXP 219,551 Air Albania, Wizz Air
3 Istanbul IST, SAW 215,573 Air Albania, Pegasus Airlines
4 Bergamo BGY 152,310 Air Albania, Wizz Air
5 Bologna BLQ 149,861 Air Albania, Albawings, Wizz Air
6 Rome FCO 144,356 Air Albania, ITA Airways, Wizz Air
7 Vienna VIE 142,328 Austrian Airlines, Wizz Air
8 Pisa PSA 121,121 Air Albania, Albawings, Wizz Air
9 Frankfurt FRA 120,948 Lufthansa
10 Verona VRN 89,880 Air Albania, Albawings, Wizz Air

Top carriers
RankCarrierMarket share (2021[74])
1 Wizz Air34%
2 Air Albania18%
3 Albawings9%
4 Pegasus Airlines7%
5 Lufthansa6%
Routes by country
Rank Destination Number of
Passengers
2021[74]
1 Italy 1,184,800
2 Germany 384,296
3 Turkey 258,914
4 United Kingdom 224,508
5 Austria 142,328
6 Poland 142,170
7 Greece 97,891
8 Ukraine 71,542
9 Belgium 71,094
10 France 53,930

Ground transport
Taxi rank at the airport
SH60 linking Tirana Airport with SH2 Tirana-Durrës Highway

The airport is linked with motorway SH60 (10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away) to SH2 Durres -Tirana access road. Taxis and car rental facilities are available at the airport. The journey from Tirana to the airport takes 20–25 minutes.

Bus

An airport bus, located outside Arrivals terminal, leaves on the hour every hour (7am to 11pm), to the city centre, and the trip takes around 30 minutes.[76] The shuttle runs an hourly service between the Airport and the back of the Opera building in the centre of Tirana.

Incidents and accidents
  • 3 October 2006: Turkish Airlines Flight 1476, flying from Tirana to Istanbul, was hijacked by Hakan Ekinci in Greek airspace. The aircraft, with 107 passengers and six crew on board, transmitted two coded hijack signals which were picked up by the Greek air force; the flight was intercepted by military aircraft and landed safely at Brindisi, Italy.
  • 30 June 2016: Three armed and masked people entered the cargo terminal, where they stole a huge amount of money that was to be transported abroad on airplanes. The amount of cash could have been up to 3 million euros. The incident caused national security concerns.[77][78]
  • 9 April 2019: An Austrian Airlines flight headed to Vienna was delayed for 3 hours, following an armed robbery. The aircraft's engines were running, when three men wearing masks and military fatigues stepped up to the fuselage, stealing 6 million euros. One of the robbers was shot dead in an exchange of fire with the police about one kilometre from the airport.[79]

See also

References
  1. "Zyrtarizohet kalimi i Aeroportit të Rinasit te "Kastrati group", për 71 milionë euro" [The transfer of Rinas Airport to "Kastrati group" is made official, for 71 million euros] (in Albanian). Top Channel. 25 December 2020.
  2. Tirana International Airport. "Air Traffic Report 2019" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 August 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  3. "EAD Basic - Error Page". EUROCONTROL. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  4. Airport record for Nënë Tereza/Rinas International Airport at Landings.com. Retrieved 1 August 2013
  5. Wragg, David (November 2009). The World's Top 500 Airports (2nd ed.). Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset BA22 7JJ, UK: Haynes Holdings. p. 13. ISBN 978-184425-632-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  6. "Facts and Figures about Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza". www.tirana-airport.com.
  7. "Wizz Air announces 55 new routes and three new bases from this summer". anna.aero. 1 June 2020.
  8. Historical Dictionary of Albania by Robert Elsie, pages 5 and 6
  9. "DRUSTVO ZA VAZDUSNI SAOBRACAJ A D – AEROPUT (1927-1948)". europeanairlines.no. Retrieved 17 June 2010. In addition a new air service (No.2008) to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia's small narbour(sic, probably neighbor), Albania, was opened. From August Aeroput flew from Beograd with a landing at Ragusa to Tirana, the capital of Albania.
  10. "HOCHTIEF AirPort Signs Concession Agreement for Tirana Airport". hochtief.com. Retrieved 15 October 2004. The agreement, signed today in the presence of the Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano in Tirana, seals the airport takeover in the context of a BOOT (Build Own Operate Transfer) concession with a duration of 20 years.
  11. "HOCHTIEF AirPort Signs Concession Agreement for Tirana Airport". hochtief.com. Retrieved 15 October 2004. Construction work for a new terminal is to commence right from the first year of operation.
  12. "Tirana International Airport". Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  13. "Tirana International Airport, Albania". HOCHTIEF. Archived from the original on 23 April 2011.
  14. "Facts and Figures about Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza". tirana-airport.com. Traffic Results: 2010 Passengers - 1,536,822
  15. "TIRANA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT" (PDF). tirana-airport.com. p. 9. The tall, bright and spacious building, designed by the renowned Malaysian architect Hin Tan, is a symbol of Albania's new self-confidence.
  16. "Tirana International Airport reaches two millionth passenger milestone". ata.gov.al. Retrieved 3 December 2016. Tirana International Airport (TIA) announced on Friday the achievement of two major passenger traffic milestones in welcoming its two millionth passenger and recording the largest ever number of customers served at the airport.
  17. "Shqiptarja.com - Aeroporti i Rinasit kalon 100% tek kompania kineze". Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  18. "irasia.com - China Everbright Limited". Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  19. "Air Albania expands Italy service from late-March 2020". Routesonline.
  20. "Air Albania will soon expand its network". italiavola. 29 January 2022. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  21. https://www.airalbania.com.al/
  22. https://www.airalbania.com.al/
  23. "Rinas / Flights start with Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt". Albanian Diaspora. July 2021.
  24. "AIR FRANCE THIS SUMMER: 196 DESTINATIONS, ALMOST LIKE IN 2019". AirJournal. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  25. "Tirana". Air Serbia.
  26. "Albawings". www.albawings.com.
  27. "Albawings opens the Tirana-Forlì". Italiavola. 5 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  28. "Albawings to resume Tirana-Rimini service from May-2022: report". CAPA. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  29. "Albania".
  30. "Our route network | Flight information | British Airways". www.britishairways.com.
  31. "Bilety czarterowe - tanie bilety lotnicze | Biuro podróży TUI".
  32. "A delayed charter season was inaugurated in Katowice". PASAZER. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  33. Liu, Jim (31 December 2019). "easyJet S20 new routes as of 27DEC19". routesonline.com.
  34. "Charter flights". charterflights.r.pl. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  35. https://ekvator.bg/hotel-pochivka/splendid-conference-and-spa-resort/1002/7619
  36. https://www.eurowings.com/en/information/destinations-routes/flight-schedule.html
  37. "Destinations". Dusseldorf Airport. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  38. "Timetable". Stuttgart Airport. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  39. "Flight".
  40. "Tirana International Airport announces the launch of the new direct flight Tirana – Dubai with Flydubai carrier". www.tirana-airport.com.
  41. "Flynas announces flights to Salzburg and Vienna". aeroTELEGRAPH. 17 February 2021. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  42. "flynas expands seasonal European network from Jeddah and Riyadh". CAPA. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
  43. "Директни полети от София до остров Пукет тръгват през есента".
  44. "Flights to Albania". ISRAIR.
  45. "Flight".
  46. https://www.lot.com/pl/en/routemap
  47. "Lufthansa: a return to Tirana, a sharing with airBaltic". Lufthansa. 19 February 2021.
  48. "Norwegian expands Danish network". routesonline. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  49. "Timetable" (PDF). tirana-airport.com.
  50. "Flight". apollorejser.dk.
  51. "Flight".
  52. "Flight". apollo.se.
  53. "Sunny Albania awaits: SkyUp announces flights from Kyiv and regions". skyup.aero. 2 April 2021.
  54. "flight-schedule". smartwings. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  55. "air and charter tickets". itaka.pl.
  56. "Flight".
  57. "Ukraine International Airlines outlines summer 2022 services". Centre for aviation. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  58. "Flight Program TUI Summer 2021". TUI. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  59. "Ural Airlines to commence Samara-Tirana service in Jul-2021". CAPA.
  60. "Ural Airlines opens a direct flight to Albania from Yekaterinburg | News | Ural Airlines".
  61. "WIZZ – Dream more. Live more. Be more". wizzair.com.
  62. "Wizz Air to launch flights to Abu Dhabi from Tirana, Sarajevo - report". SeeNews. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  63. "News for Airlines, Airports and the Aviation Industry | CAPA". centreforaviation.com.
  64. "Wizz Air allocates fifth plane to TIA base: Direct flights to Barcelona and Cologne to begin". Tirana International Airport.
  65. "Wizz Air to add sixth aircraft and four new routes at Tirana base from Dec-2021". Centre for aviation.
  66. "Wizz Air expands base Tirana - new to Friedrichshafen". aeroTELEGRAPH. 4 February 2022. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  67. "Wizzair opens three routes from Tirana". italiavola. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  68. "Wizzair : Lancia altre rotte per l'estate". 21 December 2021.
  69. https://wizzair.com/#/
  70. "Facts and Figures about Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza - Tirana International Airport". www.tirana-airport.com.
  71. "Statistics" (PDF). www.instat.gov.al.
  72. "Air Traffic Report 2019" (PDF). Tirana International Airport. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  73. "STATISTIKAT E DHJETORIT" (PDF). INSTAT. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  74. "Route Report 2021" (PDF). Tirana International Airport. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
  75. http://www.instat.gov.al/media/9908/statistikat-e-transportit_mars_2022.pdf
  76. "Bus - Tirana International Airport". www.tirana-airport.com. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  77. Times, Tirana (30 June 2016). "Spectacular airport robbery raises national security concerns". Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  78. "Huge amount of money stolen at the Tirana Airport". Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  79. Reuters Staff (10 April 2019). "Albanian police kill gunman in airport cash heist". Reuters – via www.reuters.com.
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