Albatros Airways suffers a government-president conflict

TIRANA, Sept. 13 – The suspension of the private flight company Albatros has dominated the main news of the newspapers, television and radio stations in the last week. Albania’s low-cost carrier Albatros Airways has been suspended leaving passengers stranded. Albatros was founded in 2004 and operates Fokker 100 aircraft. “Solid facts show it lacks the capacity to manage the transport of passengers,” Albania’s Civil Aviation Director Gazmend Dibra told reporters this week after suspending flights.
He said unpaid debt of 447,412 euros was the reason for grounding Albatros. But the airline, which operates several flights a week to seven cities in Italy, says it is being victimized. “Several hundred passengers have been re-routed to a competitor company, without so much as consulting us and in full disrespect of our existing passenger protection agreements,” said Albatros president Aleksander Hoxha in an open letter.
Top Channel private TV station broadcast a registration of a phone call between Albatros manager, and nephew of President Alfred Moisiu, and Dibra where it was suggested that Albatros was suspended because of links with Moisiu, who was not firing Prosecutor General Theodhori Sollaku from the post as the opposition Democrats, and their Prime Minister Sali Berisha had required following two months of parliamentary investigation ending in July. A day later Dibra came out with a letter sent from Moisiu’s close aide asking assistance for Albatros against another private company Belleair.
The fight has culminated with the political aspect. Democrats insist that everything is a business disagreement and the company may resolve the issue if it pays back the money. While the opposition insists the government did it as a pressure on Moisiu to fire Sollaku. They asked for the resignation of Dibra and the Transport Minister Lulzim Basha from the post.
Opposition parliamentarian Petro Koci asked the prosecutor office to start the case and surprisingly the Tirana prosecutor office started investigation following the tape of the phone conversation. But there is no clear indication on what charge the penal prosecution may be launched.
Dibra said that the conversation was changed and manipulated without denying he had spoken with them. “The Albatros owner had offered to talk with his uncle (Alfred Moisiu) to dismiss Theodhori Sollaku so that his company resumes working. What I have said is that Albatros company should pay back the debt and then resume working,” said Dibra.
Transport Minister Basha spoke to the parliament saying everything was speculation from the political side, expressing determination that the government authorities would simply apply the law. Berisha himself on Tuesday repeated the saying that it was a business case and that every business should be treated equal to the law. He also ironically spoke about the tape of the phone call between Dibra and Albatros manager.