TIRANA, Jan. 5 – After carrying out several tests on the Tirana International Airport concessionaire, the Civil Aviation Authority in cooperation with the government found that the security system in the area has not been implemented fully. According to a concession contract monitoring report compiled by the Ministry of Finance and Economy on December, the contract between the Chinese company and the Albanian government has not been fulfilled entirely, as only 60 percent of the security system has been implemented so far.
“The TIA has not fully implemented its airport management security system considering the operational and performance risks. The Civil Aviation Authority has requested the concessionaire to take remedial action and is constantly monitoring the situation to address aviation safety findings, ” the report stated. The authorities are continuing their negotiations with the company, taking into consideration the amount of generated revenues as well. According to the BDO company, approved as an independent expert to monitor the revenues of the concessionaire, the latter earned 120 million euros more than what was intended in the foreseen base case scenario of the contract. Therefore BDO suggested that the balance is restored through the decrease in fees or by investing in the airport.
This is not the first time that the concessionaire has been under fire for the lack of implementation of the TIA’s security system, as two robberies similar to each other occurred in 2016 and 2019. In both of these cases the government shifted the blame to the Chinese company, but the report concluded that the issue has not been solved yet a year after these negotiations began, with discussions mainly focusing on the possibility of enhancing the quality of services for the travelling passengers instead.
