Wizz Air starts flying from Budapest to Tirana, as the first low-cost operator in Albania

Tirana, Albania | Tirana Echo – Wizz Air, the largest low-cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe, has started its first service connecting Tirana with Hungary’s capital, Budapest with two weekly frequencies, on Wednesdays and Sundays.

This is the first direct connection between Albania and Hungary in 5 years, since Hungarian giant Malev went bankrupt.

Authorities hope that Wizz Air’s Budapest network which serves 59 destinations to 28 countries will also serve as a gateway to those Albanian travelers who wish to self-connect to other destinations across Europe. The new route will boost both inbound and outbound tourism and establish an important link for trade and business between Hungary and Albania.

The inauguration ceremony was held after the first flight last week with Albanian Minister for Transport Sokol Dervishaj and Hungarian counterpart Robert Homolya experiencing the first flight on board.

“As we had promised, this is the first flight of Wizz Air into Tirana and the first low cost company to start operating in Albania,” – said Albania’s minister for transport Sokol Dervishaj as he cut the inauguration red ribbon.

WIZZ’s operations in Europe and beyond provide affordable services to 133 destinations across 40 countries. In the past 12 months ending on 30 November 2016 Wizz Air carried more than 22.4 million passengers stimulating the local job market in aviation, hospitality and tourism sectors and supporting over 16,800** jobs in associated industries. At Wizz Air, a team of approximately 3,000 aviation professionals are welcoming on board customers on of one of the 74 aircraft, including 11 of the ultra-efficient brand new state-of-the-art 230-seat Airbus A321s.

Albania lags behind in low cost flights with its neighboring Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo offering several low cost alternatives to European destinations. Tirana International Airport is regarded as the most expensive airport in the Balkans due to high taxes and few services offered.

Albanian travelers have started to use their neighboring alternatives as their low-cost airports while Tirana tops the list of most expensive airports in the region.