June 13 (SeeNews) - U.S.-based air carrier ATA Airlines in partnership with Adriatic Eagle Air has launched a New York-Tirana weekly flight, the first direct transatlantic flight to the Albanian capital, for the summer season, the manager of Albania's sole international aiport Mother Teresa said on Wednesday.
"The first flight arrived in Tirana from JFK Airport yesterday, Tuesday, June 12, 2007, at 19:40 hours, and departed this morning, June 13 at 12:00 hours," the Tirana International Airport said in a statement.
The inaugural departure flight from the airport near Tirana follows the weekend visit by the U.S. President George W. Bush to the southeast European country.
ATA Airlines will fly once a week, on Saturdays, from New York, and on Sundays from Tirana. The destination will be available until 25 August. It was introduced to serve mainly Albanians living in the U.S., but will also to facilitate business travellers and summer tourists, the airport said. It will be served by a 318-seat McDonnell Douglas DC10.
Adriatic Eagle Air (www.adriaticeagleair.com) is a commercial air charter service which also offers weekly flights from New York to Pristina, the administrative centre of the U.N.-administered Serbian province of Kosovo. The New York-Pristina flight was launched on Monday, also as a summer destination only. Adriatic Eagle Air plans to add to its schedule a monthly direct flight from New York to Montenegro's capital Podgorica as of July 11.
With ATA Airlines, the number of airlines flying to and from Tirana increased to 15, the airport said. The air carriers serve 30 direct destinations. German air carrier Lufthansa resumed last month flights to Tirana after a nine-year break. Slovenia's flag carrier Adria Airways reintroduced its service last year and four other airlines - British Airways, Germanwings, Belle Air and My Air - began operations at the airport for the first time the same year.
Last year the airport, located 25 kilometres northwest of the capital Tirana, handled 906,100 passengers, up 15%, and 2,110 tonnes of cargo, up 4.4%.
Tirana International Airport opened in late March a new passenger terminal with an annual capacity of one million passengers that is to be expanded to service three million passengers by 2009. The new terminal is part of a two-stage project worth 83 million euro ($112.94 million), planned to be completed in 2009. A new cargo terminal was also opened in March.
The Mother Teresa airport has been managed by U.S.-German consortium Tirana International Airport under a 20-year build-own-operate-transfer concession since April 2005.