Start-up airline, Air Albania, is due to operate its first flight to the UK. The flight will be direct from Tirana to London Stansted; this inaugural flight will be on 26th July.
Starting from next week, Air Albania will be operating a single Airbus A319 to London Stansted. This will depart from Tirana International Airport and will run once per week.
Air Albania Airbus A319| (C) Anna Zvereva
Do we know any flight information?
This particular flight will carry the flight number ZB2015. For the return journey, the flight number will be ZB2016.
These flights are set to operate until late September.
If the route becomes popular, then Air Albania will look to increase the frequency of journeys being made.
The new schedule for the weekly route is undoubtedly interesting; the majority of flights are departing and arriving in the evening. There is a 1-hour time difference between the UK and Albania, while the flight duration is set to last 3 hours.
Flight ZB2015 will depart Tirana International Airport (TIA) at 18:30 local time and arrive at Stansted (STN) at 20:30.
On the return journey, flight ZB2016 will depart STN at 21:30 local time and arrive at 01:30 into TIA.
Both of these flights will be operated by the only Airbus the carrier owns, the A319.
Is there any competition on this route?
While this is a new route for Air Albania, it is not the first route to connect Tirana to London. There are also two other carriers operating between TIA and STN. EasyJet flight U28942 and WizzAir flight W64466 will both depart Tirana close to each other and the new flight to be operated by the Albanian flag carrier.
The UK flag carrier, British Airways, also operates a route between London Gatwick and Tirana. However, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, it has been drastically cut down to only three weekly flights, and all operated out of London Heathrow.
British Airways A320 Taking Off © Flickr
Heathrow has been British Airways base for both short-haul and long-haul flights while demand has been low.
What are your thoughts on the new route? Let us know what you think in the comments.
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