Tirana, 1 July 2020: Wizz Air, the largest low-cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe, established today the new base in Tirana. The airline has already based the first aircraft Airbus A320 at Tirana International Airport. Along with the establishment of the new base and complementing the already operated ten routes, Wizz Air announced 15 new routes to eight countries from Tirana starting from July 2020, bringing the total to 25 destinations from Tirana International Airport. The two other aircraft are expected to arrive in two weeks’ time, the company announced.

“It is a very important day for us and hopefully Wizz Air will remain strong in the market while serving to many Albanians in different destinations. This means economic growth, new opportunities to travel and hope that borders will be open soon for all the Albanian citizens that would like to visit Europe and not only. Two more aircraft are expected to be based at TIA and this will be a good sign for a great restart of all our operations hopefully”, said Chief Operation Officer of Tirana International Airport, Mr. Volker Wendefeuer.

”We are delighted to celebrate establishment of a new base in Tirana and the opening of new Wizz services from Tirana to 15 destinations in 8 European countries. With this exciting news, we continue to bring new affordable travel opportunities to Albanian passengers and stimulate tourism to Albania while ensuring the best possible sanitary conditions with our enhanced protective measures. Our investment will further stimulate the local economy, aviation and tourism sectors”, said George Michalopoulos, Chief Commercial Officer at Wizz Air.

The 3 Airbus A320 aircraft will support the operations of fifteen new routes to Beauvais (Paris), Charleroi (Brussels), Eindhoven, Mulhouse Euroairport, Karlsruhe/Baden-baden, Hamburg, Berlin Schönefeld, Frankfurt Hahn, Prague, Heraklion, Rhodes, Bari, Catania, Milan Malpensa and Torino, totalling in over 800 thousand seats on sale to 25 destinations from Tirana in 2020. Wizz Air’s growing Albanian network will support local tourism, bring more capital to the region as well as connect Tirana with new and exciting destinations.

The airline recently announced a range of enhanced hygiene measures, to ensure the health and safety of its customers and crew. As part of these new protocols, throughout the flight, both cabin crew and passengers are required to wear facemasks, with cabin crew also required to wear gloves.

Since the middle of March, after COVID-19, TIA traffic was strongly reduced. But currently the airport is serving to 12 to 16 flights per day, still under restrictions from the European Union related to the free movement.