Albatros turns into an economic-political fight in the market

TIRANA, Sept. 4 – A telephone call served to suspend flights of the Albatros flying company letting hundreds of Albanian passengers at the airport for several days. A call from a Transport Ministry senior official was enough to suspend Albatros flights. First it was said that Albatros owned some $400,000 to the government. That was accepted from the company and also said it had started to be paid with installements for two years. A day later it came out Albatros airplanes had many technical problems. A manager of the company Ilir Zeka blamed not only the political background of that decision but also the fact that the rival Belleair company had employed many close family members of the Transport Minister Lulzim Basha. That was immediately turned down by Basha’s cabinet. One of the shareholders of Albatros is a nephew of President Alfred Moisiu and many analysts would link the government decision with the news or rumor that Moisiu would not agree with the parliament decision to move Prosecutor-General from his post as the government and Prime Minister Sali Berisha had asked for.
Konfindustria, an association of businessmen, also condemened the suspension saying taht would affect economic, financial and moral goals in the long term. They said that any government internvention should take into consideration the protection of public interests and also of a fair compatition in the market.
If considered from an impartial context one could say that was an uniwse move from the government at a moment when the Prime Minister was offering to foreign and local investors the ‘Albania 1 euro’ project.