Tirana International Airport

Having read about the recent opening of a new Terminal at Tirana’s airport I was really curious to see it.

I have vivid memories of what this airport looked like when I returned (after a life time abroad) to Tirana in early 1993. The small one room arrival area then was chaotically busy with passengers that were pushing their way through a couple of passport control booths and were scrambling to get their luggage (being thrown inside through a big hole in the wall) in the midst of other public of friends, relatives, and curious individuals that were uncontrollably allowed into the same area creating an indescribable and wild situation. Since then, during each and every one of my frequent trips, I was able to follow the slow, but steady progress of this tiny place, which showed dramatic changes even within brief periods of time.





When I left last fall I could see the skeleton of the newly planned building next door, with its steel beams and modern roof shaped upward, toward the open sky, and now I couldn’t wait to see the final product. Really impressive, I must say! There is even an observation deck facing the runways, and it looked crowded!

The plane that took me to Tirana in 1993 was subjected to a very bumpy roll upon landing on the single old, and short runway, constructed during the communist era, and made up of concrete hexagonal, and uneven pieces. I remember thinking then whether we could make it into one piece to the arrival spot. No other planes were in sight at this airport except for just 2 lonely Russian Migs, parked discretely at a distance, near a tiny little hangar. Now the new terminal can accommodate one million passengers and the 13 airlines that regularly already service Tirana.

During this trip I used again the very efficient Austrian airline from NY to Vienna, and noticed with pleasure that a new and larger craft (an Airbus A320) was used for the last portion of the trip (from Vienna to Tirana), which is now run in partnership with Lufthansa, instead of the older and smaller Tyrolean plane of last year. On board I was also surprised to hear, for the first time, all the announcements also made in the Albanian language.

In the new terminal twelve are now the passport control stations upon entry: 7 for Albanian citizens, 4 for foreigners, and one for the Diplomatic core.

On this arrival I observed another dramatic change -- which probably reflects a sign of the times -- how people are processed into the country. The Albanians were whisked through quickly, while the foreigners (which made up almost half of the arrivals) had to patiently wait the slow handling on the part of the young (men and women) personnel assigned to this task, who, very intently, asked questions and checked computerized data. This experience is exactly the opposite of what used to happen until just a few years ago. The Albanian crowd impatiently had to wait their turn, while the smaller number of foreigners were sped through.

Inside the terminal




In the midst of so many changes, however, one thing seems to me to have remained, thank goodness, the same: the courtesy of staff and the waiving of the entry visa fee, even with a foreign passport, if the individual is checked to be of Albanian origin. Such at least has been my experience all along, accompanied by welcoming smiles and greetings, typical of traditional Albanian hospitality!

Other big surprises upon exiting the terminal were the huge parking lot and the manicured lawns, freshly smelling of cut grass. Leaving the lot with a car, however, was a totally different, and frustrating experience: the impatience of the locals was quite evident, both verbally and in their mode of driving.

There were 7 men assigned to direct the exiting traffic! They frantically tried to cope with obviously a still to be perfected system, while the tempers flared.....my initial reaction to the huge jam and the enormous amount of vehicles involved -- which, BTW, can be diagonally well positioned under beautifully roofed areas -- suggests, however, that the entry and exit roads are too narrow, and not well directionally marked, with the payment booth seemingly not strategically located, thus forcing drivers to momentarily leave their vehicles, with motor running, to pay the fees. Additionally, the related receipts had to be collected by hand, because of the malfunctioning machine at the exit, on top of the fact that such exit consists of a single lane into which non-stop traffic merges from 3 other separate roads! A bit maddening, I think!

I must say though that, once out, we sped toward Tirana using a brand new stretch (7 km long) of smoothly paved road, which shortens a great deal the distance to the capital. Tired, I finally made it in, safe and sound!