Albania is probably the rare case in the world where the air fleet was more glorious a century ago than it is today. The beginning of the creation of the Albanian air fleet belongs to the year 1916 when the first Austro-Hungarian planes appeared in Tirana, Italian military planes arrived in Vlora, and a year later in 1917, the French air force stabilized the Thessaloniki-Korça line, which was used for military and civilian purposes.

After the Congress of Lushnja, with the law of 1920, the journey of the Albanian Air Fleet begins. Domestic air transport preceded international air transport. Flights in Albanian space were part of the armed forces, but there was no lack of initiatives for the organization of civil transport. That same year, Avni Xhaxhuli tried to build a military air force with two planes that had remained in Vlora after the departure of the Italians. Graduated in Turkey, Xhaxhuli was the first Albanian pilot to fly over Tirana from the Shallvares aerodrome.

In 1922, the Albanian government bought the first airplanes for domestic use. Two years later, in November 1924, Fan Noli's government signed the concession agreement with the company "Lufthansa" and the Albanian airline company "Adria Aero Lloyd" was created. A few months later, the Airplane Field was built in the area of Shallvare, and in April 1925, the first flights to Vlora, Shkodra and Korça were launched. In all three of these cities, airports were legacies from the First World War.

 Italy had a decisive role in laying the foundations of the Albanian air fleet, under the personal care of Mussolini's minister and the famous pilot Italo Balbos, who made the first trip from Italy to Argentina and led the conquest of the Italian colonies in Africa. In August 1927 "Adria Aero Lloyd" was bought by the Italian Civil Aviation. This is where the construction of the Lapraka airport begins, which was among the most modern airports in the Balkans. The flight map was expanded to other cities, Elbasan, Korça, Gjirokastra and Peshkopi. International lines with Rome, Milan, Triesa, Athens, Thessaloniki, Sofia, Belgrade and Podgorica were also opened.

In the period of King Zog, Albanian aviation saw greater development. Through three decree-laws approved in 1931, 1934 and 1937, Zogu sanctioned the formation of Albanian aviation. At the beginning of the 30s, about 40 aircraft were operating in Albania for military and civil purposes with local and international destinations. In an effort to build an Air Force in the 1930s, pilot cadets were sent to study in Austria, Italy and France. During the 1930s and 1940s, airfields were built in almost all major cities. Albania is among the rare countries in the world, which had domestic air transport more developed than other forms of transport. According to Italian reports, between the months of April and November of 1935, domestic air transport numbered 337 flights.

Under the Italian occupation, Albania turned into a military and civil air base under the administration of the Italian company "Ala Littoria", which took over the Albanian Civil Aviation with a concession. Civilian transport aircraft for domestic routes were branded Savioa-Marchetti and Brenda. At that time the country had airports in Devoll, Korça, Gjirokastra, Kukës, Vlora, Kuçovo, Durrës, Lezha, Shkodra and Tirana. It is interesting to note that flights abroad were not only made from Tirana, but also from small cities such as Devoll, Peshkopia, Vlora and Shkodra. During the administration of Kosovo by the fascist government of Tirana, two more airports were built. One in Gjakova and one in Pristina. The Italians even built two airports in the Albanian area of Macedonia, one in Struga and one in the valley of Pollog. Domestic civil transport continued from 1925 to 1944.

Efforts of the Albanian state to create military aviation resume immediately after World War II. The communist regime sent a group of partisans to the aviation school in the former Yugoslavia, who after the breakdown of relations with the former Yugoslavia completed the graduation phase in the former Soviet Union. Among them was Oedipus Ypi. Colonel Ypi would later become the first and longest serving commander of the Albanian Aviation. He remained in that position for more than 20 years, from 1951 to 1974. The official date of creation of Military Aviation is April 24, 1951, when the Albanian pilot Peço Polena flew an Air Force aircraft, assembled prepared by Albanian specialists. The first military squadron with 15 Albanian pilots was created at the Lapraka aerodrome. Thus, Albania began to build its own air force, mainly for military purposes.

Of course, the dedication of the communist regime was great. In the doctrine of Marxist governments, military power guarantees the sovereignty and survival of the existence of the state, while cooperation with others is not important. Isolationism and the fear of overthrowing the regime did its job. From cooperation with the Yugoslavs, to the Russians and then to the Chinese, in the period 1950-1975, the Albanian Air Force became a regional power. They were among the most modern in the region in terms of logistics and pilot training, who were graduating from the Albanian Aviation Academy, established in 1962 in Vlora.

According to statistics in the 80s, Albania possessed an enviable modern fleet with fighter and transport aircraft, military helicopters, for civil emergencies, and even for spraying in agriculture. 4 military airports in Kuçovo, Vlora, Gjadër and Tirana were operational at full capacity. Albanian aviation possessed 360 aircraft, of which at least 240 were Soviet and Chinese-made fighter planes and helicopters. The planes were MIG 15, 17, 19, 21, IL-28, AN-2, Po-2, JAK-18, IL-14, while the MI-4, 6, 8 helicopters.

It is estimated that from 1950-1980, Albania spent billions on aviation, including the fleet, training and maintenance of its air force system. While aviation technology was taking giant steps in the world, the Albanian Air Force stopped the supply of new vehicles after 1975.

Today, Albania is one of the few countries in the world without domestic air transport, while military aviation has not yet found its way to recovery. After the 90s, the dismantling of the existing air system began, under the political judgement, that we did not have the financial means to maintain it. It was more of a devastation. Airports of all cities, which were preserved after World War II, were demolished or filled with illegal constructions in the early 90s. Aviation units were decommissioned. Under the political umbrella of reform and transformation, the budget was drastically cut, personnel were reduced and aircraft were left without maintenance, putting most of them out of service. The fatal effects of this irresponsibility can be found in a CIA report of January 5, 1993, when the US was afraid of a military clash between Albania and Serbia, because of Kosovo. According to the CIA document, "Albanian armed forces have primary deficiencies... Albania's army cannot be compared to Serbian forces". The Albanian Air Force was in a situation of misery.

In the terrible year 1997, air bases and schools in the south of the country, Vlora and Ku?ovo, were seriously damaged. The bases of Gjadri and Tirana had no better fate. Television images with people posing on airplanes or cattle grazing on airstrips made the former glory of our air fleet tragicomic, and the irresponsibility of Albanian governments shameful in the eyes of the world.

The last air incident in 2004, where the pilot Jani Tarifa, the 43rd on the list of martyrs of Albanian Aviation, lost his life, caused the Albanian government to completely retire the remaining MIG aircraft, mainly those 19 and 21. The rest of the aircraft was closed in the tunnels of Gjadri and Kuçova. One part was melted down for scrap. It was thought that Albania, as a small country, would need a small fleet of civil-military helicopters, donated by Western countries. But the 2006 incident with the government helicopter over the Adriatic where the former Deputy Prime Minister Gramoz Pashko and his son lost their lives and the expected membership of the country in NATO, made the Albanian government realize the need for a fleet of modern helicopters.

After joining NATO in February 2009, Albania aimed to modernize its air fleet. In the turbulence of a more political than technical judgment, in 2010 the purchase of five AS 532 AL Cougar military helicopters from the French company Eurocopter was approved at a total price of 78.6 million euros. But in July 2012, when the red carpet was rolled out in Rinas for the arrival of the helicopters, the bad news arrived. The first helicopter crashed in the French Alps, killing six crew members. The accident brought about the amendment of the contract. The downed helicopter was replaced by two more EC-145s.

Helicopters have their own user manuals and require costly periodic maintenance. The rushed contract, out of the care of experts, continued to highlight the failure of the project step by step. The second helicopter crashed in 2016 in the waters of Lake Shkodra, causing the death of two pilots, Florian Deliaj and Donald Hoxha. Another Cougar made an emergency landing in Italy and sits there to this day, virtually unusable. The other two helicopters in 2020 were to be sent for repair to Poland, but were returned to the border after the Polish company Heli-One did not undertake their repair. Meanwhile,the maintenance of Augusta helicopters by the Italian company Leonardo cannot be carried out because there is no agreement. In all this mess, when you see how some people justify themselves in everything they say and do, without any logical or professional reasoning, but only because they are in politics, parliament or government, you think of that caste of political parasites in Charles de Gaulle's aphorism "I think that politics is too serious a thing to be left in the hands of politicians".

Albania did not solve the problem of lack of air fleet again. Out of 48 available aircraft only 2-3 of them are available for flights. They too have problems with flight hours and maintenance. The lack of a repair base, not including maintenance in the purchase of helicopters has created tremendous damage. But the crisis is deeper. Of the staff of 12 pilots and 5 technicians trained to fly Cougar helicopters, 6 pilots and 2 technicians remain. Those who raised the voice of the professional and are no longer in the air service, ended up protagonists of Voltaire in his famous statement; it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. A part of the pilots and technicians trained in expensive courses in Turkey, Great Britain and France, have either left for the civilian market, either have fled Albania altogether, or even worse, have been involved in mafia activities, as in the case of former - the commander of the forge base who lost his life in Spain while transporting drugs from Morocco, although he was officially on a NATO training in Great Britain.

At the beginning of this year, the Albanian government has decided that during 2023, it will buy American "Blackhawk" helicopters produced by Lockheed Martin and Leonardo, and with a soft loan from the Italian government, it will also buy 2 firefighting planes. In the conditions of a major war in Europe like the one in Ukraine, the threat of a war on our borders in the north of Kosovo, the growing civil emergencies with fires, floods or health ones, Albania needs the re-establishment of a real air fleet. We are not saying to return to the levels of the 70s, but at least to a modest and serious level, as a NATO member country. The Albanian army could not degrade to the point of raping the soldiers with spray from tourists-agents who get into the Albanian bases easier than in a fruits and vegetable store. In the hope that someday things will be fixed, everyone has the right to ask: How long will this country go on in mediocrity, without strategies and infantile political propaganda myopia?