When Christian Heinzmann left his position at LuxAir, Belgian air company he knew he needed a change. Among the different job offers from worldwide companies he had to make a choice.
Prior to accepting a leading position with Albanian Airlines, he decided to come and see the situation in Albania. The only things he knew about the country were impressions from visitors that had either been here during communism or in the worst transition period and found it poor and dangerous. Before making a risky choice for him and his family he wanted to see with his own eyes the situation and then make a decision. What he found surprised him in the most positive sense. Motivated hard working loyal staff that was working for a company that had a future, despite the rough time it faces even now.
He took up the challenge to transform Albanian Airlines into a company that meets all European standards. This week he spoke to Tirana Times about the impressions, difficulties and dynamic challenges of living as a foreign businessman in the country, the air market characteristics and his esteem for Albanian coworkers.
TT- What was the situation you found Albanian Airlines when you first took up the manager position in November and what do you believe is your challenge with the company?
CH- The problem with Albanian Airlines is the direction it took for many previous years. We have to put the company back on track, and look at it with a European point of view. I would like to put Albanian Airlines in a European track, which means to make it a respectable, well-organized company that respects all European regulations. We can get there if you succeed with a lot of work that we have in front of us. My challenge is to make this company a high-level, recognizable European one.
TT -Except the internal factors such a management, external factors such as the business climate affect a lot the performance of a company and its chances for success. How would you comment on the conditions that business have to face in Albania?
CH- Albania is a country that is emerging. It is a new world that is opening up. I see a tremendous future for this country. You have beautiful landscape, natural resources. I have been a bit around so I have seen it myself. I think there is a good potential for tourism. The only thing that is really missing is infrastructure. I was very disappointed at first with the roads network. I have very good friends with businesses in Germany and I try to convince them to open up businesses here. What scares them is the lack of infrastructure. It is very difficult to travel around Albania, the roads are very bad and often dangerous. The country is beautiful and Albanian people are very accommodating and hospitable. Traffic on the other side is scary. What I would like to see in five years, when this country will most probably be a massive tourist attraction site, is serious work on infrastructure.
Albanian airlines targets at linking Tirana to other important European business cities. Albania is planning to become an EU member and has an interest to be linked to cities like Brussels with which we are staring a new flight.
TT – What are the features of the air market in Albania. How have you found domestic competition in your industry?
CH- Well we have seen a few airlines disappearing like Albatross. I believe that this is a free market and everybody has the right to enter it. I would like Albania though to combine respect for free competition with consideration for market capacities. For example doubling capacities for a single destination makes all market actors lose. Its nice to be low-cost or having an extra opportunity. But when you create too much offer and still face too little demand problems are bound to happen. Limitations are imperative in order to avoid this disequilibrium while respecting free competition.
This is not unique to Albania. I have seen it throughout my experience in the field while in London, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, etc.
The Kharafi group believes very strongly in the future of this country and is ready to invest more. I have seen more positive changes in the infrastructure projects. I often think of Albania as a country of contrasts. There are very beautiful things and very ugly things. You have to try to introduce an average.
TT – There have been some changes related to the air industry such as the new terminal inaugurated some weeks ago. How do you see the recent developments?
CH – The airport is an example of new investments coming to Albania and of course I welcome that. I would like to criticize though the monopolistic situation created in the airport now. A nice airport is an attraction for the country because it acts like a showcase. Still it has to stay fair in its management. I think that whenever a monopoly situation is created there are a lot of abuse possibilities. Procedures and rule and regulations should monitor the new developments there because it might have the tendency to get out of price affordability.
TT – What are your relations to the Albanian authorities you work with?
CH- Through our company lawyer, Bujar Hazizi, I have been lucky to get in touch with the authorities that we need to coordinate our operations with. I was very happy to meet the Minister of Transportation Lulzim Basha. He is very devoted person I am grateful for his assistance. The great thing about our communication is that we speak the same language because he studied in Holland. He speaks Flemish quite fluently and it is very easy for me to communicate. I am also very happy with the civil aviation authorities who are our partners and friends and that have done a lot to help us.
TT- Do you find Albanians to be good co-workers?
CH- I was very impressed with the staff’s high motivation and qualifications. I think in the whole of Europe you hardly can find people like this. With the salaries they make they have a great surge.
TT – Walking into these offices one can hear Greek, Italian, French, English being spoken besides Albanian? How international is Albanian Airlines?
CH – It is true that there are quite a few foreigners here but that is just because for some qualifications and experience requirements you have to look at foreigners. Nevertheless, my target is to employ more and more Albanians. We are guests in this country and it is normal to hire more Albanian people if they meet the requirements. If I can find a qualified candidate for ay job in this labor market I will get from this market.
TT- Taking this interview as an opportunity to announce anything to your customers, what is the news from Albanian Airlines?
CH- What we need to do is to compete with the tools we posses today. I would like to improve our standards, safety, image, quality, customer service. The next thing is to offer new destinations. We will start Brussels in May second because it’s important to link Tirana to the capital of Europe. Next thing we are going to look at our pricing which at the present is not flexible enough. Punctuality and flexibility together with reliability of operations are the fronts we are focusing at. We will invest in new equipment and in new aircraft. We would like to become a reputable company with a recognizable name brand.
