The Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Belinda Balluku, accompanied by the Director of Civil Aviation, Maksim Et’hemaj, visited the construction site of Vlora International Airport, where they closely monitored the progress of the project. Work is progressing at a rapid pace, with the construction of the runway and the entire airport infrastructure forming part of the project-taking place in parallel. To date, more than 40% of the physical works have been completed. Director Ethemaj explained that the project is being developed in several stages, as predicted.
“The airport itself will be developed in three phases. This is the first phase of development, which will then be accompanied by the other phases, depending on the number of passengers. What you see is also accompanied by a process of coordination between the parties. At the moment, the Directorate of Civil Aviation, the airport, customs and the police have started work to determine the needs, the locations where they will be located, in order to calculate the number of staff required. The work is going very well,” says Ethemaj.
The physical work is expected to be completed by the end of this year to allow time for the certification and approval processes of what is considered to be one of the largest airports in the region.
“The phases are defined, what will happen in each of them, because such a large civil aviation unit, where there are several components inside, will not be built all in the first phase. As planned in the feasibility study, the entire airport construction process will proceed in several stages until the final realisation of all the works that this airport will have. For this reason, we are also prepared according to a calendar and phases that we will launch one by one, but for the first phase, which will be the phase of opening operations and launching some of the sectors, we are fully ready,” said Balluku.
The airport will be developed in three sectors: civil aviation, aircraft maintenance and real cargo, which Albania lacks. The Minister of Infrastructure and Energy stressed the importance of meeting the deadlines, pointing out that our country already has the necessary experience to complete the entire process.
“We have really good experts in our ranks who already know the process. We did a test with the Kukës airport process and we got it done on time and on schedule, so now our teams are experienced teams, with very good contacts with international partners, and on the other hand, they passed a powerful test, which was the certification of Kukës. Now let’s say that this is not a test, this is a guaranteed success, it is enough that we meet the deadlines, so I insist on the part of the deadlines”, underlined Balluku.
Vlora International Airport will be a category 4E airport, with a 3.2-kilometer runway that will allow for transoceanic flights.