After the strike organized by 65 air traffic controllers of Albcontrol, which saw the block of all the inbound and outbound flights on Wednesday, some of the controllers have returned back to work. According to the Minister of Infrastructure Belinda Balluku, the controllers responded to the call made by the government. “Albcontrol is now in full normality. The controllers who responded to our call are now fulfilling their duties. […] The hostage-taking plan failed,” said the Minister. According to various media reports, for the moment the air traffic at Tirana International Airport is being controlled by Turkish, Greek and Albanian controllers.
Today the scheduled commercial inbound and outbound flights from TIA went on without any delay, meaning that the situation was back to normality. Meanwhile, President Meta has requested officially the initiation of audit procedures on the economic-financial and organizational activity of “Albcontrol” as well as the causes that have led to the emergence and deepening of problems there. So far the head of the union of the controllers, Armando Fezga, the head of the shift during the day of the strike, Flora Ndreca and the controller Muhin Mezini, are under arrest with the motivation of abuse of office, after an order issued by Tirana Prosecutor’s Office. According to the lawyer of the controllers, Rezart Kthupi, the accusation of abuse of office applies only to workers of the public administration and not to a company that does not depend on the state.
The air traffic controllers at AlbControl stopped working on Wednesday with the motivation that they had been stressed as a result of the pay cuts and declared that they were incapable of work. According to the government, the strike was a threat to Albanian national security and was politically motivated.
