The Deputy Prime Minister, at the same time Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Belinda Balluku said on Monday that work is continuing at the Tirana International Airport to build the runway that will enable transoceanic flights, while she informed that the Vlora airport will be ready at the beginning of the season new tourist, next year.

At the conference held in Tirana "Summer 2024, security, hospitality, services and infrastructure for vacationers", where Prime Minister Edi Rama, as well as actors from the field were present, Balluku, among other things, spoke about the developments in the country's airports, while emphasizing that in 2023, TIA received 7.2 million passengers, from the 2 million it had received in 2019.

According to her, the growth beyond the projections pushed the government to work on increasing the capacities of the infrastructure.

"We were prepared for a significant number of tourists, but not 10 million tourists. We had to work not only to increase the accommodation capacity but also to improve the infrastructure and we succeeded. 14 million is the projection this year, but I believe there will be more tourists who will visit the country this year. TIA received 7.2 million passengers from 2 million in 2019. This was achieved thanks to a civil aviation strategy, for the entry gates from the air. There are 4 airports, starting from Kukësi, Tirana, Vlora and Gjirokastra, for which we will open the competition in May," said Balluku.

The Deputy Prime Minister informed that the airport of Tirana while preparing for transoceanic flights, has increased the surface of the terminals to 40,000 m2.

"When we renegotiated the contract there was an uproar, but that renegotiated contract was based on the guarantee of an investment of Euro 100 million in the extension of the runway, to turn it into an "E" category airport, where the transoceanic flights that Albania s has had until today. Today, Albanian passengers have filled the airports of the region for such flights. With the expansion of the runway, they will fly from our airports," declared Balluku.

Balluku also announced that Vlora airport has an excellent progress and at the end of this year it will be delivered to continue with the certification phase and next year the planes will take off and land.