After a series of debates and repeated promises, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced Wednesday that he received a proposal to begin building the country’s second passenger airport near the coastal city of Vlora “by this summer".
Tirana International Airport. Photo: Ivana Dervishi/BIRN
The Albanian government announced Wednesday that it has received an offer from a consortium of companies including Cengiz Construction, Kalyon Construction and Kolin Construction to build a much anticipated international airport near the southern coastal town of Vlora.
Announcing the offer, Prime Minister Edi Rama wrote in his social media profiles that the construction works "will start in June", while the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy said that it will begin the process of "evaluating the offer".
Albania has only one international airport that serves the nation’s capital Tirana. The facility went through a controversial privatisation process in 2004 that included a much maligned exclusivity clause that didn't allow for the opening of another airport for the full 20-year duration of the contract.
Tirana International Airport (TIA), the company that operates the concession, had a 35% net profit rate on revenues and is blamed by tour operators as a major obstacle for the further development of tourism in the country.
The government reached an agreement with TIA in 2016 under which Albania is allowed to open another airport as part of a two year extension of TIA’s existing contract.
This is not the first time that Rama announces plans to built Vlora Airport.
In December 2015, Rama announced that he had received "very credible offers" to build three airports. Two years later he said he was looking into a proposal to built a "national air transport company" will the help of Turkey’s national flag carrier, Turkish Airlines.
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