Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza

It serves the city of Tirana, its metropolitan area, and surrounding region in the county of Tirana. The airport is named in honour of the Albanian Roman Catholic nun and missionary, Mother Teresa (1910–1997). It is located 6 nautical miles (11 kilometres; 6.9 miles) northwest of Tirana, in the municipality of Krujë, Durrës County.

Tirana International Airport Mother Teresa Aeroporti Ndërkombëtar i Tiranës Nënë Tereza
IATA: TIA ICAO: LATI
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner/Operator	Tirana International Airport SHPK and Kastrati Group
Serves	Tirana, Tirana County, Albania
Location	Rinas, Durrës County, Albania
Hub for	Air Albania Wizz Air
Focus city for	Ryanair
Elevation AMSL	108 ft / 33 m
Coordinates	41°24′53″N 19°43′14″E / 41.41472°N 19.72056°E / 41.41472; 19.72056
Website	tirana-airport.com
Map
TIA Location in Albania Show map of Albania TIA Location in the Mediterranean Show map of Mediterranean TIA Location in Europe Show map of Europe
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 17/35 2,750 9,022 Asphalt
Statistics (2023)
Passengers 7,257,662 Passenger change 22–23 39.6% Aircraft movements 51,050 Movements change 22–23 32.5%
Source: Albanian AIP at EUROCONTROL LATI Airport record

The airport serves as the main hub for the Wizz Air and country's flag carrier Air Albania. Tirana international airport offers regularly scheduled passenger services. It is the largest airport in Albania and is one of the busiest Balkan airports after reaching 7.2 million passengers in 2023. Albania's other main airport is Kukës International Airport located in the northeast of the country.

Early development

The airport was constructed from 1955 to 1957. Tirana had commercial airline services before. Domestic aviation started in 1926 when German airline Adria-Aero-Lloyd obtained a monopoly for domestic air routes in the country and began servicing Tirana, Shkodër, Korçë and Vlorë. These operations proved unprofitable, and the airline sold its rights to Italian company Ala Littoria which opened regular routes in 1935 between Tirana to Shkodër, Kukës, Peshkopia, Kuçova, Vlorë, and Gjirokastra. In 1938, the Yugoslav carrier Aeroput introduced regular commercial flights linking Tirana with Belgrade, Serbia, with a landing in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

After the Second World War and installation of an isolationist communist regime in Albania, air transportation was rare. From 1944 to 1948, there was a service to Belgrade, but after the break of relations with Yugoslavia, until 1953, there was only a twice-a-month connection to Budapest operated by Soviet-Hungarian company Maszovlet. From 1953 to 1955, there was no air service, until February 1955 when a route to Moscow was inaugurated, followed thereafter to other Eastern-European capitals. In the 1970s, Tirana was one of the first European cities to be served by China's CAAC Airlines, with a weekly flight to Beijing via Bucharest and Tehran. In the late 1980s, there were six airlines flying to Tirana, with a total of nine round-trips per week.

With the collapse of communism in Albania in 1991 and subsequent liberalisation of travel restrictions abroad for Albanians, the number of airlines operating at the airport increased rapidly. In 1999, there were 8,249 flights and 356,823 passengers, seven times more than in 1991.

Contemporary

The air traffic equipment and facilities of the airport have been heavily modernised, following investments by Tirana International Airport SHPK, a consortium led by Hochtief AirPort. Hochtief assumed management of the airport on 23 April 2005, for a 20-year concession period.

The concession included the construction of a completely new passenger terminal and various infrastructure improvements, among them the construction of a new access road, new parking lots, and a bridge over the old airport access road. The expansion resulted in an increased number of passengers per annum, estimated at 1.5 million passengers for 2009. The number of passengers effectively increased to more than 1.5 million in 2010.

The terminal building and its second expansion, the cargo building, its landscaping, and its carpark canopies were designed by Malaysian architect Hin Tan of Hintan.

In December 2016, the Airport announced that it served 2 million passengers during 2016, reaching its second milestone.

The airport announced over 7.2 million passengers for 2023, exceeding their projections predictions for that year. This statistics marks a substantial increase of 40% compared to the previous year (2022) and 117% compared to the year 2019, solidifying TIA's position as a key player in the regional aviation industry.

In 2017, China Everbright Limited became the sole owner of Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza. After reaching an agreement with the Albanian Government to end its monopoly on international flights from Albania, Hochtief AirPort sold the operation of Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza to China Everbright Limited, a company specializing in asset management, direct investment, brokerage and investment banking. On December 25, 2020, Kastrati Group bought all the shares of the airport from China Everbright Limited for 71 million euros.

The following airlines operate regular year-round and seasonal scheduled and charter flights to and from Tirana:

Traffic

Year	Passengers	Change	Aircraft Operations	Change	Cargo (metric tons)	Change
2005	785,000	20.77%	15,400	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.
2006	906,103	15.43%	15,856	2.96%	2,435	N.A.
2007	1,105,770	22.04%	18,258	15.15%	3,832	57.37%
2008	1,267,041	14.58%	19,194	5.13%	2,497	34.84%
2009	1,394,688	10.07%	20,064	4.53%	2,265	9.29%
2010	1,536,822	10.19%	20,768	3.51%	2,355	3.97%
2011	1,817,073	18.24%	22,988	10.69%	2,656	12.78%
2012	1,665,331	8.35%	20,528	10.70%	1,875	29.41%
2013	1,757,342	5.53%	19,942	2.85%	2,164	15.41%
2014	1,810,305	3.02%	17,928	3.02%	2,324	13.53%
2015	1,997,044	10.3%	20,876	16.4%	2,229	4.1%
2016	2,195,100	9.9%	22,352	7.1%	2,200	1%
2017	2,630,338	19.8%	24,336	9%	2,266	3%
2018	2,947,172	12%	25,462	3%	2,245	0.9%
2019	3,338,147	13.3%	28,695	12.5%	2,372	5.7%
2020	1,310,614	60,7%	15,280	46,8%	1,796.8	24.3%
2021	2,923,533	123.1%	26,152	73%	1,983	10.4%
2022	5,198,550	77.8%	38,517	47.3%	2,045	3.1%
2023	7,257,662	39.6%	51,050	32.5%	1,953	4.5%
2024 (31.03)	1,910,616	63.9%	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Busiest routes

Most frequent routes at Tirana Airport (2023)

Rank	Destination	Airport(s)	Number of Passengers	Top carriers
1	London	LHR, LTN, STN	582,742	British Airways, Ryanair, Wizz Air
2	Milan	MXP	390,976	Air Albania, Wizz Air
3	Rome	CIA, FCO	373,284	ITA Airways, Ryanair, Wizz Air
4	Bergamo	BGY	363,300	Ryanair, Wizz Air
5	Pisa	PSA	322,971	Air Albania, Ryanair, Wizz Air
6	Istanbul	IST, SAW	321,661	Air Albania, Pegasus Airlines
7	Bologna	BLQ	310,583	Ryanair, Wizz Air
8	Athens	ATH	266,203	Aegean Airlines, Wizz Air
9	Vienna	VIE	240,408	Austrian Airlines, Ryanair, Wizz Air
10	Verona	VRN	217,611	Air Albania, Wizz Air

Most frequent routes by country at Tirana Airport (2023)

Rank	Destination	Number of Passengers
1	Italy	3,171,204
2	Germany	953,815
3	United Kingdom	596,294
4	Turkey	415,513
5	Poland	337,187
6	Greece	285,147
7	Austria	240,408
8	France	226,126
9	Spain	176,661
10	Belgium	175,856

Top carriers

Top carriers by market share at Tirana Airport (2023)

Rank	Carrier	Market share
1	Wizz Air	61%
2	Air Albania	7%
3	Albawings	5%
4	Lufthansa	4%
5	Austrian Airlines	3%

 

 

The airport is linked with motorway SH60 10 nautical miles (19 kilometres; 12 miles) away to SH2 Durres -Tirana access road. Taxis and car rental facilities are available at the airport. The journey from Tirana to the airport takes 20–25 minutes.

Bus

An airport bus, located outside Arrivals terminal, leaves on the hour every hour (6am to 2am), to the city centre, and the trip takes around 30 minutes. The shuttle runs an hourly service between the Airport and the back of the Opera building in the centre of Tirana.

Rail

A new electrified light rail train line is being built between Tirana and Durres with a link to Tirana Airport planned to be completed by 2024–25.

• 3 October 2006: Turkish Airlines Flight 1476, flying from Tirana to Istanbul, was hijacked by Hakan Ekinci in Greek airspace. The aircraft, with 107 passengers and six crew on board, transmitted two coded hijack signals which were picked up by the Greek air force; the flight was intercepted by military aircraft and landed safely at Brindisi, Italy.
• 30 June 2016: Three armed and masked people entered the cargo terminal, where they stole a huge amount of money that was to be transported abroad on airplanes. The amount of cash could have been up to 3 million euros. The incident caused national security concerns.
• 9 April 2019: An Austrian Airlines flight headed to Vienna was delayed for 3 hours, following an armed robbery. The aircraft's engines were running, when three men wearing masks and military fatigues stepped up to the fuselage, stealing 6 million euros. One of the robbers was shot dead in an exchange of fire with the police about one kilometre from the airport.

• Transport in Albania
• Economy of Albania
• List of airports in Albania
• Kukës International Airport
• Vlora International Airport