Albanian Airlines charters Denim Air

Denim Air, the leading European regional airline ACMI specialist, has put into service one Fokker 50 on an ACMI lease with Tirana based Albanian Airlines. The contract is for an initial six months. The aircraft (serial number PH-KXM) now sporting Albanian Airlines’ livery, will complement Albanian’s BAE 146 fleet based in Tirana, principally serving scheduled routes to Kosovo, Bari, Athens and Pristina. “Operations got off to a good start on Monday this week,” commented Christian Heinzmann, the airline’s CEO. Heinzmann joined the airline last November having previously served as CEO of Luxair and Managing Director of VLM Belgian Airlines. Christian has also held senior positions at Air Europe and Sobelair. “Denim Air was the natural choice when we needed additional capacity. The airline has an excellent reputation in the marketplace, can always provide aircraft and crews quickly and can offer us a complete turnkey package of support.” Albanian Airlines is owned by Mr Nasser Mohamed Al Kharafi, owner and chairman of the highly successful Al Kharafi Group of Kuwait. He has firm expansion plans for the airline and strong interests in Albania. These include upgrading the BAe 146 fleet (Albanian has a 146-100, -200 and -300 series) with up to four new 100-seat jets and Heinzmann is leading the studies on this. A decision is anticipated by September this year. Initially established in 1992 between Albtransport and regional carrier Tyrolean Airways of Austria, the carrier became Albanian Airlines in 1995. It currently flies some 200,000 passengers on a European network which embraces Athens, Bologna, Turin, Rome and Bari in Italy, Frankfurt, Istanbul and Pristina. Brussels joins the network by the end of March and a return to London Stansted is being appraised for later this year. Albanian Airlines also offers charter flights to Sharm al Sheik in Egypt.
Matthijs Boertien, CEO of Denim Air, said: “We are delighted to have secured this contract with Albanian Airlines to operate out of Tirana. It is also a pleasure to assist Christian Heinzmann, who we know extremely well, in advancing his new strategy for Albanian Airlines, an airline which is well funded and has a terrific future.”
Denim Air provides flexible aircraft and crew capacity to regional airlines, offering tailor-made solutions to suit the needs of the regional aviation industry. The airline holds an unrestricted AOC and operates as an all-round service provider for commercial airlines. During 2006 Denim Air performed more than 35,000 scheduled flights on behalf of international operators.