Tourism growth is slowing

Within a relatively short period, Albania has become one of the region’s most sought-after destinations, experiencing rapid expansion of tourism activity over the past four years.

The country’s viral moment on social media — promoting its coastline, natural landscapes, historic towns and relatively low holiday costs — has been accompanied by greater interest from international media.

This wave of promotion has directly driven growth in foreign visitors and spurred investment and businesses tied to travel, accommodation, transport and tourism services.

At the same time, Albanians’ propensity to travel abroad has grown. Expanded airline networks, more direct destinations and low-cost carrier offers have made trips abroad more accessible to a larger share of the population.

However, after the very high growth rates of recent years, the sector is showing signs of entering a more moderate growth phase. Entries and exits of Albanian and foreign citizens through land, air and sea border points rose 7.6% in 2025 — a markedly slower pace than the 16% expansion recorded in 2024.

Albanian citizens made a total of 8.6 million trips abroad, up 9% from the previous year’s 13.9% pace. Meanwhile, foreign citizen entries reached 12.5 million, 6.6% more than in 2024, when growth had been around 15%.

“Tirana International Airport” (TIA), which operates Rinas Airport under concession, posted revenues of about 15 billion lek in 2025, according to preliminary tax data (the company has yet to file its 2025 balance sheet).

Air travel activity has grown rapidly since the pandemic, driven by the entry of low-cost operators and Albania’s return as a preferred tourist destination. A new record was set in 2025: Tirana International Airport data shows around 11.6 million air entries-exits for 2025, up 8.7% year-on-year — an all-time record. Growth rates have slowed compared with 2024, when expansion was a double-digit 46%.

“It is important to emphasize that Albanian aviation is part of international market dynamics. In this context, late 2024 and 2025 have been considerably challenging for the aviation industry. 2025 represents a consolidated step toward our medium-term strategic goal of 15 million passengers,” Manjola Kaso, Director of Aviation Development and Marketing at Tirana International Airport (TIA), said earlier.

She adds that from a more global perspective, the average growth of European airports was only 4.5%, non-EU airports only 6.2%, and airports in the same category as TIA (10–25 million passengers) only 5.8%. “So TIA leads every growth indicator in every European airport category.”

Fierce competition among airlines

“Wizz Air Malta Albanian Branch” has entered the list of the 200 largest companies in the country. Wizz Air entered the Albanian market in 2017, and its presence expanded markedly from 2020 with the opening of its base at Tirana International Airport.

The low-cost airline has grown rapidly since entering the Albanian market, taking more than half of the flight market since 2022. The Hungarian-capital company peaked in 2023 with 61% of the market. Its share then eased slightly with the entry of the other low-cost operator, Ryanair.

Since 2022, the company has also registered a branch in Albania, declaring a balance sheet (it previously operated through its parent). According to the annual report, on February 1, 2023, most of the commercial activity of the Albanian Branch of Wizz Air Hungary was transferred to the Albanian Branch of Wizz Air Malta, which is expected to drive the branch’s activity growth.

Revenues in 2025 for Wizz Air Malta stood at 2.34 billion lek, up 12.4% year-on-year. 92% of these revenues went to personnel expenses. The company had an average of 565 employees in 2025, up from 467 in 2024.

The company notes in its annual report that the ongoing military operation in Ukraine and sanctions against the Russian Federation could affect European and global economies. “The branch has no significant direct exposure to Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Iran or Israel. However, the impact on the general economic situation may require revisiting some assumptions and estimates.”

The other low-cost operator, Ryanair, which entered the market in late 2023, became Wizz Air’s strongest competitor, capturing 22.3% of passengers flying via Rinas in its first full year of activity.

In 2025, the company’s share eased slightly to 21.96%. The company has no direct representation in Albania and files no balance sheet.

“Air Albania”, the company in which the state held 10% of shares, stopped flying altogether in November 2025, ending a short 7-year journey.

The company operated its first (inaugural) flight on the Tirana–Istanbul route in September 2018. Its main shareholder was Turkish Airlines (49.12%), with the remaining shares split between the Albanian state enterprise Albcontrol (~10%) and the Albanian private company MDN Investment (~41%).

In the two years after launching, the company grew rapidly, reaching 18% of the market in 2021 and ranking as the second operator after Wizz Air, which then held 34% of the market.

Despite ambitious plans for flights to Europe and even the United States, Air Albania not only failed to expand but rapidly lost ground, as the growth of low-cost Wizz Air “blocked” the destinations it operated and targeted — except Istanbul.

From 2024, competition intensified with the other low-cost operator, Ryanair. The company focused solely on flights to Istanbul, where Pegasus Airlines also operated, dropping to a market share of just 3.4% that year.

The final blow came in November 2025, when Turkish Airlines announced it had decided to sell its entire 49% stake in Air Albania and then stopped enabling transit ticket sales through Air Albania. The latter began constantly canceling flights until halting them in December.

In 2025, Air Albania closed with a market share of just 2.33%, dropping to the country’s fifth-largest operator.

The company had long been part of the largest-companies ranking but never filed a balance sheet and never turned a profit. According to tax data, the company’s annual turnover was about 3.8 billion lek in 2021, rising to about 5 billion lek in 2022 and 5.5 billion lek in 2023.

In 2024, revenues were about 4 billion lek, according to indirect tax data. In 2025, again per tax data, Air Albania was still part of “Monitor 200”, with annual turnover of about 2 billion lek — halved year-on-year.

“Albcontrol”, the publicly owned operator providing air transport services, declared revenues of 3 billion lek, down 14% in 2025.

In late July 2026, the Ministry of Economy, the company’s shareholder, filed acts ordering the company’s deregistration without liquidation and the transfer of all rights, obligations and assets of “Albcontrol” sh.a. to “Albcontrol” as a public entity.

The move came after the company had for years been caught in the dispute between the Albanian government and Italian investor Francesco Becchetti, with the latter blocking Albcontrol’s Eurocontrol accounts for a sum that reached about 200 million euros (18.2 billion lek) at the end of 2025.

Since 2020, the company has collected no revenue from ‘en route’ and ‘terminal charge’ services following a Brussels Court of First Instance decision blocking income from ‘en route’ and ‘terminal charge’ services provided by Albcontrol.

The sum the state-owned air-traffic manager Albcontrol has failed to collect due to the blocking of its Eurocontrol accounts — a consequence of the dispute between the Albanian government and Italian investor Francesco Becchetti — reached 18.2 billion lek at the end of 2025, up from 607 million lek in December 2020.

Albania’s confrontation with Italian investor Francesco Becchetti at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes ended with a ruling in his favor, awarding 110 million euros in compensation.

The investor has targeted money in accounts the Albanian state holds abroad, one of them Albcontrol’s Eurocontrol account in Brussels.

“Air BP Albania”, which holds the right to supply fuel to aircraft flying into Rinas Airport, reported 2025 revenues of 4.4 billion lek, up 39.4% year-on-year. According to its activity report, sales volumes are 65% higher.

Travel agencies on the rise

In recent years, travel agencies have also entered the largest-companies list, due to a change in accounting that forced them to report ticket values as revenue too, not just the margins they kept. This significantly inflated their turnover, which in fact does not reflect real activity, consisting of margins and commissions.

“Globus-Travel” has become the country’s largest tour operator, with revenues of 3.7 billion lek, up 2.5%.

“During 2025, the company continued its travel-agency activity, ticket sales and organization of tourism services. Performance was marked by moderate turnover growth, improved operating result and net profit, and a significant increase in cash holdings,” the activity report says.

“Albtours ‘D’ – VAS tour operator” is the country’s second-largest travel agency. The operator’s revenues fell 10% to 3.1 billion lek.

According to its activity report, all revenues come from “ticketing” services.

“Landways International” has re-entered the 200 largest list after growing revenues 13% to 2.7 billion lek. Unlike other operators, whose revenues come mostly from tickets, the company earned 2.4 billion lek from tours, specializing in organizing regional trips.

The company had about 70 employees and holds shares in Croatia, Kosovo and other countries.

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