Albanian Airlines

Infobox Airline
airline = Albanian Airlines

logo_size = 119
fleet_size = 4
destinations = 10
IATA = LV
ICAO = LBC
callsign = ALBANIAN
parent = MAK-Albania Sh. p.k.
company_slogan = The Spirit of Albania
founded = 1991
headquarters = Tirana, Albania
key_people =
hubs = Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza
secondary_hubs =
focus_cities =
frequent_flyer =
lounge =
alliance =
subsidiaries =
website = http://www.albanianairlines.com.al/

Albanian Airlines MAK Sh. p.k. (trading as Albanian Airlines) is an airline based in Tirana, Albania. It operates scheduled international services. Its main base is Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza. [cite news | title= Directory: World Airlines | work= Flight International | page= 72 | date= 2007-03-27]

History

The airline was established in May 1991 under the name of Arberia Airlines, and was the private airline of politicians for communist Albania. It was later renamed to Albanian Airlines in May 1992 and started open operations to the public on 20 June 1995. It was formed as a joint venture between the Albanian state-owned Albtransport and Tyrolean Airways of Austria flying a single Austrian registered, De Havilland Canada Dash 8 - 102. Tyrolean opted out of the relationship in 1997, taking back the single Dash 8. Albanian Airlines was privatized in the same year and sold to Kuwaiti-based M.A. Kharafi & Sons Group. As a result, it was restructured in 1997 when its operations were based on a single Airbus A320 - 231 aircraft leased from Shorouk Air of Egypt. By 2001 it operated a fleet of 4 Tupolev Tu-134 aircraft on scheduled services from Tirana to Bologna, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Priština, Rome and Zürich. In July 2001 Albanian Airlines started upgrading its fleet by gradually removing its Tupolev aircraft and acquired its first BAe 146. Two more BAe 146 were added in 2003 and 2004. This upgrading process allowed the company to expand to new strategic markets such as Belgium and Germany.

Destinations

Albanian Airlines operates the following scheduled international services (as of January 2008) [cite web |url=http://www.albanianairlines.com.al/destinations.html | author= AlbanianAirlines | title=Albanian Airlines Destinations |accessdate=2007-07-14 ]

*Albania
**Tirana (Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza)
*Germany
**Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt International Airport)
*Greece
**Athens (Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport)
*Italy
**Bologna (Guglielmo Marconi Airport)
**Rimini (Federico Fellini International Airport)
**Rome (Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport)
**Turin (Turin International Airport)
*Kosovo
**Pristina (Pristina International Airport)
*Turkey
**Istanbul (Atatürk International Airport)
* UK
**London (Stansted International Airport)

Fleet

The Albanian Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of 16 July 2008) [http://www.ch-aviation.ch/aircraft.php?search=set&airline=LV&al_op=1] :

*1 BAe 146-100 (ZA-MAK)
*1 BAe 146-200 (ZA-MAL)
*1 BAe 146-300 (ZA-MEV)
*1 McDonnell Douglas MD-82 (ZA-ASA) (Wet leased from Global Aviation)
*7 Tupolev Tu-134

External links

* [http://www.albanianairlines.com.al/ Albanian Airlines]
* [http://www.ch-aviation.ch/aircraft.php?search=set&airline=LV&al_op=1 Albanian Airlines Fleet]

References