Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza

The airport was constructed from 1955 to 1957. Tirana had commercial airline services before. Domestic aviation started in 1926 when German airline Adria-Aero-Lloyd obtained a monopoly for domestic air routes in the country and begin servicing Tirana, Shkodër, Korçë and Vlorë. These operations proved unprofitable, and the airline sold its rights to Italian company Ala Littoria which opened regular routes in 1935 between Tirana to Shkodër, Kukës, Peshkopia, Kuçova, Vlorë, and Gjirokastra.[8] In 1938, the Yugoslav carrier Aeroput introduced regular commercial flights linking Tirana with Belgrade, Serbia with a landing in Dubrovnik, Croatia.[9]

After the Second World War and installation of an isolationist communist regime in Albania, air transportation was rare. From 1944 and 1948 there was a service to Belgrade, but after the break of relations with Yugoslavia, until 1953, there was only a twice-a-month connection to Budapest operated by Soviet-Hungarian company Maszovlet.[8] From 1953 and 1955 there was no air service, until February 1955 when a route to Moscow was inaugurated, followed thereafter to other Eastern-European capitals. In the 1970s, Tirana was one of the first European cities to be served by China's CAAC Airlines, with a weekly flight to Beijing via Bucharest and Tehran. In the late 1980s there were six airlines flying to Tirana, with a total of nine round-trips per week.[8]

With the collapse of communism in Albania in 1991 and subsequent liberalisation of travel restrictions abroad for Albanians, the number of airlines operating at the airport increased rapidly. In 1999 there were 8,249 flights and 356,823 passengers, seven times more than in 1991.[8]

The air traffic equipment and facilities of the airport have been heavily modernised, following investments by Tirana International Airport SHPK, a consortium led by Hochtief AirPort. Hochtief assumed management of the airport on 23 April 2005, for a 20-year concession period.[10]

The concession included the construction of a completely new passenger terminal and various infrastructure improvements, among them the construction of a new access road, new parking lots, and a bridge over the old airport access road.[11] The expansion resulted in an increased number of passengers per annum, estimated at 1.5 million passengers for 2009.[12][13] The number of passengers effectively increased to more than 1.5 million in 2010.[14]

The terminal building and its second expansion, the cargo building, its landscaping, and its carpark canopies were designed by Malaysian architect Hin Tan of Hintan.[15]

In December 2016, the Airport announced that it has served 2 million passengers during 2016, reaching its second milestone.[16]

See source Wikidata query.

Passenger, aircraft operations and cargo statistics at Nënë Tereza Airport

Year	Passengers	Change	Aircraft Operations	Change	Cargo (metric tons)	Change
2005	785,000	20.77%	15,400	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.
2006	906,103	15.43%	15,856	2.96%	2,435	N.A.
2007	1,105,770	22.04%	18,258	15.15%	3,832	57.37%
2008	1,267,041	14.58%	19,194	5.13%	2,497	34.84%
2009	1,394,688	10.07%	20,064	4.53%	2,265	9.29%
2010	1,536,822	10.19%	20,768	3.51%	2,355	3.97%
2011	1,817,073	18.24%	22,988	10.69%	2,656	12.78%
2012	1,665,331	8.35%	20,528	10.70%	1,875	29.41%
2013	1,757,342	5.53%	19,942	2.85%	2,164	15.41%
2014	1,810,305	3.02%	17,928	3.02%	2,324	13.53%
2015	1,997,044	10.3%	20,876	16.4%	2,229	4.1%[6]
2016	2,195,100	9.9%	22,352	7.1%	2,200	1%[42]
2017	2,630,338	19.8%	24,336	9%	2,266	3%[2]
2018	2,947,172	12%	25,462	3%	2,245	0.9%[43]
2019	3,338,147	13%	28,270	11%	2,372	5%[44]
2020	1,310,614	60,7%	15,280	46,8%	1,796.8	24.3%[45]

An airport bus, located outside Arrivals terminal, leaves on the hour every hour (7am to 11pm), to the city centre, and the trip takes around 30 minutes.[49] The shuttle runs an hourly service between the Airport and the back of the Opera building in the centre of Tirana. The single fare is 300 Albanian Lek. From Durres the single fare is 480 Albanian Lek.