![]() As a result, low-cost carriers are discouraged from entering the Albanian market, while neighboring countries offer much lower prices from their primary and secondary airports. Despite the considerable modernization of the airport, prices are among the highest in Europe because of the monopoly over Albanian airspace, and limited carrier choices. In 2005, an American-German consortium was granted a 20-year concession over TIA and Albanian airspace. From January to October 2017, the airport served 2,224,833 passengers and handled 1,857 tons of goods. The total number of passengers for the country was 1,997,044 in 2015 and 2,200,449 in 2016. The most important and biggest international airport of the country is the Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza (TIA), in Tirana, the country's capital. Albania is probably one of the few countries in Europe where vehicles imported from the United States, and from left hand traffic jurisdictions (for example the United Kingdom) can be found on the streets without any modifications brought from expats living abroad.Īir Albania national flag carrier in Tirana These are mostly 1990s and early 2000s diesel cars, while it is widely believed that the fuel used in Albania contains larger amounts of sulfur and lead than in the European Union. ![]() Mercedes Benz cars were owned by Enver Hoxha and reportedly favored by his officials, giving the brand a foothold even before private ownership of cars was legalized.Īir pollution has become a pressing concern as the number of cars has increased to over 300,000 in the capital Tirana. In particular, Mercedes Benz vehicles are widely preferred not only for their status symbol, but also for their durability on rural roads where half of the population resides, and the cheap price for buying used ones. The population is known for owning a large fleet of German cars. Albanian entrepreneurs also imported used Greek buses and started carrying passengers on intercity routes that did not exist or had been poorly serviced during the communist era. Traffic in the capital remained light, but traffic lights and other control devices were urgently needed to deal with the multiplying number of privately owned cars. As a result, car imports numbered about 1,500 per month. In 1991, the Albanian government lifted the decades-old ban on private-vehicle ownership. Up until 1991, the total number of cars in Albania was between 50. According to official figures, in 1987 Albania's roadways carried about 66 percent of the country's total freight tonnage. Despite the poor quality of Albania's roads, most of the country's freight was conveyed over them in a fleet of about 15,000 trucks. The project was scheduled to last four years and cost US$500 million. A group of Greek construction companies signed a protocol with the Albanian government in July 1990 to build a 200 kilometer road across the southern part of the country, extending from the Albanian-Greek border to Durrës. Mercedes Benz vehicles on the main boulevard in Tirana, AlbaniaĬentral government funding of local road maintenance effectively ended in 1991, and the breakdown of repair vehicles because of a lack of spare parts threatened to close access to some remote areas. After the collapse of Communism, the network fell into disregard, operating with second-hand carriages in a constant precarious state. Train transport was the main public transportation method until 1990. By 1987, 677 km of railway were constructed in total linking the main urban and industrial centers for the first time since the end of World War II. The total length of Albania's roads more than doubled in the first three decades after World War II, and by the 1980s almost all of the country's remote mountain areas were connected, either by dirt or paved roads, with the capital city of Tirana, and ports on the Adriatic and Ionian Sea.Īfter 1947, a significant infrastructure undertaking was the construction of the country's rail network as Albania was considered the only country in Europe not to have standard rail service. The Italian fascist regime of Mussolini carried out a project of road constructions in Albania in the 1930s, yet auto-mobility was limited at the time. ![]() Since antiquity, the area of modern Albania served as a crossroad of important caravan routes such as the Roman Via Egnatia linking the Adriatic with Byzantium (later Constantinople). Via Egnatia connecting Dyrrachium with Byzantium
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |