Ryanair, announced it would open a new base at Tirana Airport, Albania from April 2026 in a $300 million, basing 3 Boeing 737-800 aircraft supporting over 3,000 jobs, including 100 new jobs for pilots and cabin crew, operating 33 routes to 16 countries.
Ryanair will operate 450 weekly flights on 33 routes for Summer 26, including 10 new routes to Birmingham, Dublin, Milan, Malta, Naples, Pescara, Poznan, Trieste, Turin, and Verona, as well as increased frequencies on 9 existing routes such as Bari, London, Prague, Stockholm, and Warsaw.
Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary said “As Albania’s only truly low fares airline, Ryanair is pleased to announce this new S26 – 3 aircraft – Tirana base. Since launching our first Albania flights in Nov 2023, Ryanair has worked closely with our partners in Tirana Airport to deliver ambitious growth, which will now see Ryanair’s traffic grow to over 4m passengers in 2026, with 3 new B737-800 aircraft ($300m invest.) based at Tirana, supporting over 3,000 local jobs, and operating 33 routes, incl. 10 new routes to Birmingham, Dublin, Milan, Malta, Naples, Pescara, Poznan, Trieste, Turin and Verona. Ryanair’s continued growth at Tirana, offers Albania a massive opportunity to grow its air traffic, tourism & jobs as Ryanair plans to grow to 5m passengers p.a. and base up to 6 a/c at Tirana in a $600m investment which adds over 20 new routes by 2030, provided of course that Albania maintains its current low access costs and zero aviation taxes which stimulates rapid growth in traffic, tourism, investment, and jobs.”
Tirana Airport’s Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Piervittorio Farabbi said “Upon starting the operations in Albania back in November 2023, the Ryanair team came with a slogan of ‘Low Fares Revolution’ in Albania. Today, we mark a pivotal moment in this revolution announcing the opening of a base in Tirana. Starting next summer season, there will be much more opportunities to explore the world from Tirana and to expose touristic Albania to more countries. Such decision from a partner airline, can only come as a result of a bold commitment on our side to offer operational excellence. We have heavily invested to expand operational capacities both landside and airside with an extended runway, additional parking stands, renovated apron and taxiways and expanded terminal tripled in size. Passenger processing needs to be fast and reliable; that’s why we invested in advanced digitalization in check in, boarding and passport control. We are proud to be among the fastest airports that are transformed from operations to a base within only 30 months.”
Image Credit: Tirana International Airport
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