Rama's show with Vlora airport, will it end up abandoned like Kukësi?

Once in opposition, Edi Rama declared with his mouth full that those who tell him that we will build new airports in a country as small as Albania are lying to him, while now he is using the same fable for his electoral campaign. The same thing was done four years ago with the Kukës airport, today it is being done with the Vlora airport.

"Vlora International Airport will open in the first days of May," Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku recently declared, emphasizing that everything is being prepared for the inaugural flight to be operated by the Albanian company "Air Albania".

"Today, we are just a few days away from the landing of the first plane at Vlora airport. In the first days of May, Airalbania will make its inaugural flight, touching down on the largest runway in the Balkans, 3.2 kilometers and a 22 thousand square meter terminal," she said.

But according to all specialists, the Vlora airport is not ready yet. The flight that will be made by the airline that Edi Rama also uses for his private charter, seems to have electoral purposes. The same story, as now with Vlora, was repeated on the eve of the 2021 elections with the Kuks airport.

Then a Wiz Air plane departed from London to Tirana and after stopping there because that was what it was allowed for an international flight, it made another trip from Tirana to Kukes. Rama used this forced landing, on April 18, 2021, to say that those immigrant DP fans who had accused him of being a liar were seeing this dream come true.

⇑Edi Rama in April 2021 on the Tirana-Kukës line with a passenger who introduced him as an opposition member who did not believe in this dream. Below are the preparations for this electoral ceremony⇓.

Of course, the trip was a propaganda hoax that was organized only as a show for the elections. At the time, the prime minister justified this fact with the rule that new airports first try local routes and then move on to international ones.

Rama explains the flight from Rinas to Kukës, why planes cannot land at the new airport

But the fame of what the prime minister proudly considered as the second air gateway of Albania did not last long. After another inauguration and landing in February 2022 with ministers in Kukës where it was said that there would be two flights a week to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, this airport no longer functions today. No international company takes off or lands from it. It served more as a show for the campaign of four years ago to lie to immigrants from the north, especially the London kids, that they would come closer to their homes more easily.

The same fable is being used now on the eve of May 11, when Belinda Balluku, in coordination with Air Albania, is organizing a single trip for the sake of campaigning. According to the most realistic forecasts, real flights from this airport cannot start before November of this year and what will be organized before the elections is simply a spectacle.

This announcement comes after the news spread that the company Munich Airport International (MAI), a subsidiary of Flughafen München GmbH, has decided to withdraw from its commitment to the construction project of the international airport in Vlora.

 It was alleged that the Germans stopped cooperating due to numerous criticisms from environmental organizations and international institutions, which have expressed concerns about the potential negative impact of the airport on the Vjosa protected area and the Narta lagoon, an important habitat for rare birds.

And so that nothing tarnishes the government's magnificent work, a company with an Albanian flag has been recruited to perform a symbolic flight before the elections./ Lapsi.al