Author: Mariglen Murrja
Air Albania was presented by the Albanian government as a promise for lower prices for consumers, but 10 months after the first flight, the company cannot be called low cost, nor has it influenced the competition in the market to reduce the high ticket prices.
Si Prime , as well as the Minister of Infrastructure promised the end of "salty" airline prices and "the quality of an excellence company"
"Air Albania is an Albanian company that was created to have cheaper prices, low cost, but offering the quality of a company of excellence", he said. Ministry, Belinda Balluku, on September 30, 2019.
But, until the publication of this article (March 2020), Air Albania has not operated a single day as a low cost company.
A company that operates as low cost in the Albanian territory can be considered Wizz Air, which started flights from Tirana on December 19, 2019. With this line, you can book tickets for as low as 15 euros to Milan (Bergamo), one way , for example, on April 22 or 25 euros a few days later.
From the observation made, a ticket to Air Albania destinations is often found fourth or fifth in the ranking of prices.
Tickets range on average from 85 euros (9,500 allek), in the Economy Promo class, and on holidays the prices go up to 420 euros (50 allek), for a trip to Rome.
For a round-trip flight to Milan, Italy, with Air Albania, a ticket costs us almost 12,000 lek more than the cheapest price and is in the fifth position in the ranking of prices.
These prices, not only do not belong to a low cost company, but also do not increase competition with other airlines to lower ticket prices.
For a flight to Rome with Air Albania, a ticket is again more expensive.
In this case, travelers pay 8,000 lek more than the cheapest offer and the ticket is in the third or fourth position in line.
The next destination, Istanbul, where Air Albania is in partnership with Turkish Airlines.
We cannot book by name here Air Albania, by me Turkish Airlines.
But, even though in partnership with the Turkish state and Turkish Airlines, Albanian citizens have to pay 10.000 lek more for a ticket to Istanbul.
The same situation on the Tirana-Bologna line, both for round-trip tickets and for one-way tickets. Even for this destination, Albanians pay more if they want to travel with Air Albania and there are rare dates where you can find a ticket from Air Albania at least cheaper than its competitors.
The entry into the market of two large companies, Wizz Air and EasyJet, seems to be what has brought about the price reduction
of air tickets.
Wizz Air offers flights to 10 destinations (Vienna, Budapest, London, Bologna, Munich, Milan, Pisa, Bergamo, Venice, Verona). While EasyJet from May 1, 2020 will offer three flights a week to London.
The price of tickets for Air Albania, even after the declaration of the addition of the new plane "Naimi", remains unchanged.
Air Albania, debates since the day of birth
Air Albania was officially founded on May 16, 2018 and made its first flight on April 19, 2019. It was created by a collaboration between the Albanian and Turkish governments under a public-private partnership. Turkish Airlines, a founding partner, owns 49.12% of Air Albania.
The remaining 50.88% is publicly traded, currently split between Albcontrol, a corporation owned by the Albanian government, with approximately 10% of the shares, and MDN Investment, a privately owned company in Albania, with approximately 41% of the shares.
Today, Air Albania owns 2 planes, Migjeni and Lasgushi, and flies to 5 destinations.
On March 29, 2020, it has been promised that the third plane, Naimi, will start flights, which will travel to Verona, Bergamo and Pisa.
But, since the day of its establishment and until February 2020, very few concrete facts and information have been made public about the Air Albania airline project, and requests for public information are ignored by the institutions.
The government has never explained what competition was held and on what criteria the company MDN Investment, which has no direct experience in the field of air flights, was chosen. In the NRC extract we see that MDN Investment as a company was registered on May 7, 2018, just 9 days before the establishment of Air Albania.
On the other hand, Albcontrol is also a state agency and not an enterprise in the commercial sense, since it operates on the principle of setting the air overpass fee based on the cost recovery principle. This means that Albcontrol invests in technology and on the operational side to cover the obligation to provide escort for aircraft that cross our airspace and passes this cost through fees to the lines that use this space.
The law does not provide for Albcontrol to make profitable or loss-making investments.
With the creation of Air Albania, Albania opened a debate regarding the respect of the Stabilization-Association Agreement that it had signed during the process of admission to the European Union: https://europeanwesternbalkans.com/2019/04/09/ec-evaluate-possible-violation-eu-albania-saa/ The Commissioner for Enlargement, Johannes Hahn, stated on April 9, 2019 that he had raised this concern several times in all meetings with Albanian officials.
"The Commission is aware of the complaints regarding the possible violation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), EU-Albania, regarding the construction of the airport in Vlora and the creation of the Air Albania airline. According to the SAA, the award of public contracts on the basis of reciprocity, especially in the context of the World Trade Organization, is a key objective. The Commission has regularly emphasized this fact in its discussions with the Albanian authorities", the statement of the European Commission states.
Hahn emphasized that the European Commission will launch an investigation in the coming months on Air Albania.
"A broader and deeper assessment of the framework of public procurement and competition/state aid in Albania is already planned through various technical engagements in the coming months," the statement said.
"Article 74, point 1 of the Stabilization-Association Agreement provides that "the parties consider as a desirable objective the liberalization of public contracts based on the principle of non-discrimination and reciprocity. In this context, the special law adopted, which selects a company without opening any tender, raised concerns regarding the respect of the aforementioned principle of non-discrimination and other principles of EU public procurement, such as equal treatment, discrimination and competition."
Failure to respect the Stabilization-Association Agreement was one of the reasons why the Netherlands was skeptical about opening negotiations with Albania.
Despite the debates that accompanied the "birth" of Air Albania, the fact remains that consumers continue to pay expensive tickets.
Air travel tickets from the international airport, Mother Teresa, are among the most expensive in the region and in clear contrast to flights from the airports of neighboring countries such as Pristina, Podgorica, Skopje or Ohrid.
Air Albania, apart from returning the name Albania to aviation, has not fulfilled the promise of lower prices for Albanians.
