Today, the aircraft of the first transatlantic direct route with Canada, Tirana–Toronto and vice versa, arrived at Tirana International Airport, thus marking a historic achievement for the airport and the aviation sector in Albania.

The passengers of this flight were welcomed with a symbolic ceremony at the airport, attended by the Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Enea Karakaçi, airport executives, representatives of the airline company, and other guests.

The ceremony continued inside the airport premises with the participation of Edi Rama, who described the launch of direct flights with Canada as a long-awaited development and an indication of the transformation of the civil aviation sector in Albania.

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Prime Minister Rama:

I believe many things were said and it is not appropriate for me to repeat them, in order not to prolong this meeting, which has great importance due to the fact that, for the first time, Albania becomes part of the map of transoceanic flights — something that until yesterday would have been entirely an unrestrained fantasy, while today it is a reality, thanks precisely to the landing here in Tirana, at Rinas airport, of the first aircraft from Canada, specifically from Toronto, which, as the company representative said, was full.

Meanwhile, I say to the company representative what I have said to all those who, when they came with their routes to Albania, started once a week, twice a week, out of concern for costs and fear of not making a profit: “Do not hesitate at all, because Albanians are without question first in two things: mobile phone messages and flights by aeroplane.” And without question, your route will be very successful.

But now, for us, this is something that has happened and belongs to the past, even though the past is only this morning, while our strategic objective is that soon we will also have the other direct route, the one with the United States. And regarding this objective as well, considerable progress has been made, and I can say that we are much closer to finalisation than we could have thought only a few years ago.

The data of the Tirana airport is extraordinary. For several years, the airport has held first place in Europe for the growth in passenger numbers, and the changed figure over seven or nine years, from 2016 to 2025, is enough to understand what growth has taken place.

In 2016, when a new phase began in the joint work for the further transformation of the airport and the modernisation of our civil aviation, there were only 22 thousand flights per year for 2.2 million passengers. Less than ten years later, the number of passengers reached 13.7 million and the number of flights 82 thousand — a figure that we foresee will exceed 100 thousand by the end of this decade and the beginning of the next.

Likewise, it is not only the increase in passenger numbers but also the improvement in the quality of service. Tirana airport is one of the first airports in Europe to take the step of digitised check-in and check-out. Very soon, we will open a new chapter here in the digital transformation of the airport and its further modernisation: the chapter of digital gates, where entry will be made without any kind of control if you are Albanian and if you have an Albanian biometric passport.

This will make it so that, for all Albanian passengers entering Rinas airport, it will be like entering their own home, and all information will be received through artificial intelligence that this gate will have.

Naturally, the idea is to begin with domestic passengers and, immediately after that, foreign passengers will join as well, which will be an extraordinary transformation in many aspects, especially in another aspect that we often forget here in Albania, but which is fundamental for aviation: the aspect of airport security.

Today, we are at a very important moment, also because Albania has now completed a new phase of transformation in tourism and must necessarily enter another phase of transformation. Before coming here, I was looking at some data and a series of comparative figures, one of the graphs I saw, which was very meaningful, was the graph showing how, arithmetically, we have reached exactly the moment when we must aim to open the chapter of high-end tourism, the tourism of wealthy consumers, the tourism that brings more income from a much smaller number of people.

And that graph shows it best: the continuous increase in the number of tourists who belong to the category of mass tourism does not bring a continuous increase in revenues. Instead, revenues start and move on another graph, in another trend, with a very, very slow growth rate.

But if we then compare the revenues, which grow very slowly, with the expenses, which grow very quickly as a result of the rapid increase in the number of mass tourists — meaning much greater pressure on traffic, much greater pressure on our cleaning system, much greater pressure on waste processing, much greater pressure on water and sewage systems and, naturally, without question, much greater overall pressure on the environment — then the calculation is very simple.

And it is a simple calculation for all those who fall prey to a way of thinking that appears right on the surface, but is entirely wrong in essence: “Why do we need high-end tourism? Why do we need it? Why do we need resorts where the rich come when we do not have access to them?”

In fact, the opposite is true. We need as many of them as possible to have as much income as possible for us, for the community, for the economy, for business and, naturally, for the state treasury.

So this is the point we are at: we will continue to bring more tourists, but what we are now very clear about in how we should approach it is to bring more income into Albanian families and into the common treasury of the Albanian state.

In closing, I want to add that there is also a very clear and professional projection for the challenge ahead of us, which is the projection of the number of passengers who will potentially enter Albania a decade from now and the number of flights that will need to respond to this number of passengers. This means that we must continue to expand our civil aviation system.

Everyone is informed about some delays caused not because of the state or any natural disaster, but due entirely to internal company-related reasons at the Vlora International Airport. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy has taken the proper steps in this regard, and our objective remains unchanged: that the airport of Vlora, another international airport with very great potential, will definitely open and will not fall victim to disputes within the company itself.

We are in the final preparation phase to open the tender for the Gjirokastër Airport, which will be different from Tirana and Vlora: a touristic and mainly seasonal airport.

And, without question, we have no reason to give up on the further development of Kukës Airport, even though when it comes to agreements with airline routes, those are private agreements developed at the level of the companies’ interests and the airport itself.

And finally, when we started this duty, only 6.5% of the Albanian population had access to aviation. That means only 6.5% of Albanians travelled by plane or could take a plane when we started this duty. Meanwhile, as we speak today, that figure has gone to nearly 40% of Albanians who use aeroplanes.

This is the result of opening competition after the end of that previous and inherited concession, which, truthfully speaking, made flights from and to Albania expensive, but without question also thanks to the increase in Albanians’ incomes, which is a fact that can be discussed one wishes however, however, but like every fact, it is undeniable if you refer to the data.

I thank everyone, and a special thanks to the Ambassador of Canada.

I have no thanks for the company representatives. The company representative came here to make money, and we welcome that, and, naturally, we are very happy about it, because the more the company earns, the more flights they will increase. But no thanks from me.

You have made no sacrifice; in fact, you are late, because you should have come earlier. But still, you are ahead of those who will come later.

My thanks go to the ambassador, who made the trip to come all the way here. I want to thank all the airport workers, all the security staff, and all the State Police officers serving here at the airport.

In every sense, I can say that even from the point of view of human relations, the airport is a different place. Not that there are no moments that are not sufficiently satisfactory in communication, but still, when you think that until yesterday you came to Albania, entered your country’s airport, and the police looked at you worse than the police at other countries’ airports — and they did not look at you well either — today I believe we have achieved a historic success, because now we have smiling police officers

Unimaginable until not many years ago.

Thank you all very much.