Vlora Airport: South Airport

2023-11-28 11:21:00, Ekonomi Fatos Çoçoli

Vlora Airport

Vlora International Airport is expected to start flights in March or April 2025.

Airport of the highest category in the Balkans

The airport is of category 4E, one of the highest categories in the Balkans, as this category can also handle transoceanic aircraft.

Vlora International Airport in the first year of operation will have more passengers than was predicted in its feasibility study. From the forecast in the business plan for only 330 thousand passengers in 2025, with the growth rate of tourism in Albania, it is certain that Vlora Airport will be able to receive more than 1 million passengers in 2025!

The airport will be covered with solar panels, taking measures to avoid problems with the reflections of the panels during landing and takeoff of planes at the airport. The panels will produce 5.2 megawatts of renewable energy, all of which will go to the airport's needs.

Vlora had an airport about 110 years ago!

Vlora had an airport in 1914! The Italian army in Vlora, at the end of 1914, set up an airfield for military purposes in Mifol, which, in addition to ordinary aircraft, also included a seaplane base.

In November 1924, the Albanian government of that time signed a 10-year concession agreement with the German company "Lufthansa". Based on this agreement, the Albanian airline was created under the name "Adria Aero Lloyd". In the 40s of the last century, three flight lines operated from Vlora city airport: Vlora-Gjirokastër, where the ticket cost 11 gold francs per person, Vlora-Rome, which cost 90 gold francs per person, and Vlora-Tirana 17 francs gold per person, or 216 euros today.

Vlora-South airport

The Vlora International Airport runway will be 3.2 km long and 60 meters wide, and the passenger reception and processing terminal will have a space of 20,000 square meters, enough to process 3 million passengers per year.

The airport in Akërni is located in a low coastal area at 2 meters below sea level. Therefore, a great engineering work has been done by the construction companies, with soil lifting, raising the runway and the airport above sea level. The runway for landing and taking off planes is being built 2.6 meters higher than sea level and the airport 4 meters higher, while the 6 km perimeter road (runway circle) is ready for asphalting today. All these works will be completed by the summer of 2024.

At the beginning of 2024, the construction of the water supply network will begin. In January 2024, in cooperation with Munich International Airport, which will manage Vlora Airport, the international certification of Vlora International Airport begins.

In addition to the aircraft maintenance workshop, Vlora Airport will also have the Academy of Albanian Civil Aviation Pilots. By the end of the summer of 2024, the Airport will have its air traffic controllers internationally certified.

Vlora International Airport will be operated by the port authorities of Munich Airport in Germany, one of the largest in the world.

Very soon, the implementation of the international airport of Vlora will give full oxygen to tourism in the south of the country, absorbing foreign tourists from the beaches and tourist destinations of Greece. Good news for Vlora airport and the entire Albanian economy is that Vlora airport will be managed by the airport authority that manages Munich Airport in Germany, one of the largest in the world./ CNA