In September 2018, Air Albania made its first (inaugural) flight on the Tirana-Istanbul route. The flight was part of the launch of the company's operations as a new national airline.

The creation of Air Albania was seen as the return of a national airline after the absence of a state-owned company following the closure of Albanian Airlines. The project was presented as a strategic cooperation with Turkish Airlines, the largest Turkish airline (a combined private-state model), and as a step to increase Albania's air connections.

Air Albania was officially founded on May 16, 2018, as a Public-Private Partnership between Albania and Turkey. The airline had as its main shareholder the Turkish company Turkish Airlines (49.12%), and the remaining shares are shared by the Albanian state-owned company Albcontrol (~10%) and a private Albanian company, MDN Investment (~41%).

In the two years following its launch, the company grew rapidly, reaching 18% of the market in 2021, ranking second behind Wizz Air, which at the time had 34% of the market.

The company, which was heavily promoted by the government, had very ambitious plans, both in expanding destinations in Europe, with routes to Italy and Britain, which were temporarily launched, and beyond, to the USA.

But after 2021, Air Albania not only did not expand, but it began to rapidly lose ground, as the growth of the low-cost operator Wizz Air “blocked” the destinations it operated and targeted, with the exception of Istanbul.

From 2024, competition increased from another low-cost operator, Ryanair. In recent years, Air Albania has been handling a high flow of passengers to Istanbul’s main airport with two to three flights a day, both for direct connections for those traveling for business, tourism and other purposes, and because Europe’s largest airport is an important transit hub worldwide.

The other operator that had a direct route to Istanbul was Pegasus Airlines, which flies from the low-cost airport Sabiha Gokcen Airport.

By focusing on just one destination, Air Albania’s market share in the flight pie dropped to 10% in 2022 and shrank to 3.4% in 2024.

The company received its final blow in November 2025, when Turkish Airlines announced that it had decided to sell its entire 49% stake in Air Albania and subsequently stopped selling transit tickets through Air Albania.

The latter began to cancel flights continuously, until it stopped them in December. In 2025, Air Albania closed with a market share of only 2.33%, dropping to the fifth largest operator in the country.

In January 2026, Turkish Airlines announced that it would launch direct flights from Tirana to both Istanbul Airport and Sabiha Gokcen Airport. In addition, it announced the launch of flights from March to Istanbul and Ankara and Ajet, the low-cost wing of Turkish Airlines, completely removing Air Albania from the Turkish market.

At the end of January 2026, the Council of Ministers decided that the 10% capital quotas owned by the state-owned company Albcontrol, sh.a., in Air Albania will be transferred to the Ministry of Economy and Innovation.

The Ministry of Economy and Innovation, with the transfer of the quotas, according to the decision, exercises all the rights and obligations that derive from the quality of the partner in the company “Air Albania”.

Sources claim that this is the last attempt to keep “Air Albania” afloat. As part of the organization plan, the aim is for the Albanian government to take over the quotas of “Turkish Airlines” and for the latter to transfer a part to an international air operator.

With Turkey already “occupied”, the intended destinations are in Italy and the United Kingdom, where there are many Albanians, Monitor reported. The most important issue to be resolved remains that of the debts, which party will take them over.