The ordinance which has already entered into force foresees compensation to passengers from Euro 250 to 600 for cancelled flight ranging from 1,500 km to 3,500 km, as well as food and refreshment depending on the length of delay.
TIRANA, March 19 – Flight delays and cancellations, a common phenomenon in Albania, will no longer go unpunished. Under an ordinance published on the Official Gazette, airline companies will be obliged to compensate passengers and provide assistance in cases when they are refused to board a plane or flights are delayed or cancelled. The ordinance which has already entered into force foresees compensation to passengers from Euro 250 to 600 for cancelled flight ranging from 1,500 km to 3,500 km, as well as food and refreshment depending on the length of delay. Airline companies are also obliged to offer hotel accommodation to passengers whose flights have been delayed by one night or more.
Currently, twelve airlines fly in to and out of TIA, connecting the Albanian capital directly with 32 destinations. The most frequented ones as final destination or transfer points were Rome, Milan, Vienna, London and Pisa.
In 2012, the airlines carrying most passengers to and from Tirana were Belle Air (50.1 percent), Alitalia (9.6 percent), Air One (9.6 percent), Austrian Airlines (8.1 percent) and Turkish Airlines (5.5 percent).
For the first time during its eight years of concession, the Tirana International Airport (TIA) registered a shrink in passenger numbers affected by global crisis impacts. Passenger numbers at TIA fell by 8.4 percent in 2012.This is the first annual decline in passenger traffic recorded at the airport as the euro zone crisis hit air travel and businesses, airport officials said. Meanwhile, Air Traffic Movements (ATMs) were down 10.7 percent compared to 2011, while cargo demand, a monitored indicator of the health of the economy fell by 14.9 percent.
