Air Albania has suspended all flight operations since 7 December

Air Albania has officially announced the end of its operations.

Its last flight had already taken place on December 2, 2025.

The airline was founded in May 2018 as a joint venture between Turkish Airlines (49%) and several Albanian investors.

It began operations in September of the same year, using aircraft leased from Turkish Airlines.

In November 2025, Turkish Airlines decided to withdraw from the joint venture, forcing the airline to cease operations and file for bankruptcy. 

Photo: Ton Jochems

HYBRID c/s - Air Albania (Skyup Airlines) / B737-82R / UR-SQO

Photo: Christian Tondo
 

Air Albania to add two more A320s

Air Albania (ZB, Tirana) has announced it will dry-lease two A320-200s directly from GA Telesis, its first aircraft not sourced via parent company Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul New).
The Albanian flag carrier plans to finalise the contract shortly ahead of the 180-seater jets' induction later this summer season. It did not, however, provide a more specific timeline and did not disclose the identity of the A320s.
The lessor owns ten A320-200s, five of which are placed with United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare), one with dormant Onur Air (8Q, Istanbul New), and four more are in storage.
The ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows that Air Albania currently operates one A319-100 and one A320-200, both sourced from Turkish Airlines. The A319, ZA-BEL (msn 3142), is sub-leased from Park Aerospace Holdings/Avolon, while the A320 is owned by the Turkish carrier. Air Albania also wet-leases an ACJ319-100 from Turkish Airlines General Aviation for government operations.
The two new A320s will support Air Albania's planned network growth. In early April, the carrier launched scheduled flights from the newly opened Kukës airport in the north of the country to Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg, CH and Zurich. In July, it will launch services from Tirana to Antalya and Burgas.

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Photo: Paul Bannwarth - BSL

 

Air Albania to launch next year, fly to former Yugoslavia

Air Albania will launch next year and operate on routes from Tirana mostly to the nearby former Yugoslav countries, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced.
"Coming soon", Rama wrote on his Facebook page next to a visualization of a B737-400 in Air Albania's livery. He further commented that while it is too early to announce any precise dates, "half of the work is done and soon, I believe the next spring, this bird is going to start flying."

According to the PM's statement, the airline will first fly from Tirana to Pristina, Skopje, Zagreb, Podgorica, Sarajevo and unrevealed destinations in Western Europe. No information has been provided regarding the prospective airline's fleet.
Air Albania is aided by Turkish Airlines, although it remains unknown whether the Istanbul Atatürk-based carrier provides funding, aircraft or know-how.
Albania, one of the poorest European countries, was ruled as a communist autarchy independently from the neighbouring Yugoslavia. It emerged as a democracy in the early 1990s, but ever since has been marred by corruption, banking scandals and a lack of economic growth. Its two largest carriers, flag carrier Albanian Airlines (1995) and private Belle Air, went bankrupt in 2011 and 2013 respectively. In 2016, Albawings started operations.
aviation capacity module, the three largest airlines in the Albanian capital are Blue Panorama Airlines, Ernest Airlines and Alitalia. Air Albania would mostly compete with Adria Airways and Air Serbia.

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