January 23 (SeeNews) - The airport of Tirana is expected to serve 8.4 million passengers in 2024, Maksim Et’hemaj, director of Albania’s civil aviation authority AAC, told local media last week.
In 2023, the airport of Tirana handled 7.26 million passengers, 40% more than a year earlier, the airport operator said earlier.
The airport operator is already working to expand the airport in several directions in order to accommodate a predictably higher number of passengers especially during the summer, Et’hemaj said last week in a televised interview with Vizion Plus posted on Youtube.
“Our previous airport development master plan predicted the current passenger traffic to be achieved by 2032. That master plan doesn’t work anymore. So, we are now working on a new master plan, which will allow the airport to expand to host up to 16 million passengers,” Et’hemaj said.
Albania surpassed the 10 million foreign tourists milestone by the end of 2023, a 35% rise compared to 2022, according to an earlier tourism ministry statement. Albania had a population of around 2.7 million as of the beginning of 2023, the statistical office said.
Shefqet Kastrati, CEO of the airport’s operator Kastrati Group, told local media in November that the company is only halfway through its planned 100 million-euro ($108 million) investment on the airport.
In October, the airport’s operator unveiled expansion plans to create capacity for a potential new base for Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair, which started using the airport of Tirana last year.
($=0.917 euro)