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German newspaper: Air Albania is on the verge of collapse, it has no planes left! It is facing lawsuits and bankruptcy
2025-09-20 00:12:47 / POLITIKË
By Martin Dichler, aeroTelegraph
In fact, the conditions are good: the flight business to Albania has been booming for years, Wizz Air and Ryanair are seeing unprecedented passenger growth, and Tirana airport is expecting around twelve million passengers by 2025. So there are many winners from this air boom in Albania – but the state-owned airline Air Albania, which also includes Turkish Airlines, has remained a consistent loser since its founding in 2018.
The dominance of low-cost airlines and the lack of state support brought the company to the brink of survival. And when, finally, in the spring of 2025, routes to twelve destinations were opened in a very short time, this turned out to be too much: after only a few flights, most of the routes were suspended again.
The Boeing 737-800 flew for just one month for Air Albania
In recent weeks, rumors of an imminent end for Air Albania have been circulating in regional media. Numerous flight cancellations, due to the suspension of offered destinations, as well as reports of delays in salary payments to employees, have further fueled these rumors.
The Boeing 737-800 with registration number UR-SQO, leased from Sky Up in February, flew for only one month for Air Albania before the Ukrainian airline canceled the contract. A second aircraft, prepared for operation, never entered service at all.
Sky Up raises serious accusations against Air Albania
At the request of aeroTELEGRAPH, Sky Up explains: “According to the terms of the contract, the company pledged to make two aircraft available for a period of two years. Air Albania did not systematically fulfill its contractual obligations, especially regarding payment discipline”. There were delays in initial and advance payments. Furthermore, it was revealed that “Air Albania, at the same time, had signed a contract with another airline – for the same flight program that was foreseen for Sky Up aircraft”.
The Ukrainian airline further explains that, because of this, it failed to implement other projects. “While Air Albania used aircraft from another partner, Sky Up’s aircraft remained grounded, which caused the company direct financial losses.” Sky Up thus initiated legal proceedings, a lawsuit was accepted and a court hearing is scheduled for December 2025.
Report on another lawsuit against Air Albania
As the CH Aviation portal recently reported on this matter, the American leasing company Gat Aircraft and Engine Leasing Limited (GA Telesis) has filed another lawsuit against Air Albania as the first defendant, and Turkish Airlines as the second defendant, in the High Court of England and Wales, for alleged breaches of leasing contracts for two Airbus A320s that were previously operated.
According to reports, the Albanian airline stopped paying the leasing installments for the aircraft with registrations ZA-ASM and ZA-MMK in March 2025. GA Telesis also claims that Air Albania has not fulfilled its obligations to other parties, including Eurocontrol. For this reason, the company terminated the contracts.
Air Albania flies with aircraft from Fly 2 Sky and Dan Air
Currently, Air Albania does not operate any of its own aircraft, but continues to use leased aircraft in the form of two A320-200s, from Fly 2 Sky (LZ-FSA) and Dan Air (YR-DSE), on its remaining network of flights to Istanbul, Ankara, Bologna, Milan and Verona. In a request from aeroTELEGRAPH for comment on the rumors and allegations, the company did not respond.
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