Greek plane is not allowed to land at Rinas Airport, 3 air traffic controllers fired

Tirana International Airport

 A Greek plane traveling from Athens after waiting for several minutes in flight was forced to return from where it departed, as it did not receive approval to land at Tirana International Airport (TIA). The situation has caused tension between the authorities operating at the airport and panic among passengers.

The Aegean Airlines plane was scheduled to land at Tirana International Airport at 9:25 a.m. but a lack of communication with the air traffic agency forced it to return to Athens. According to sources from the border police, there were about 100 passengers on the plane, including women and children.

The interruption of operations at Tirana International Airport due to lack of staff occurred from 9:23 to 9:55 am. Alarmed about the situation, the border police authorities and (TIA) officials were initially set in motion, while at their insistence, the staff was temporarily returned to duty, enabling the landing of a plane coming from Milan at 10:30.

Sources from the Rinas police told Oculus News that this was an unprecedented situation, while sources from the prosecution said that there is still no decision whether there will be an investigation in the conditions when the national and air security of Albania has been violated.

Meanwhile, it was recently announced that Rinas Airport has been officially closed due to the suspension of air traffic controllers.

The announcement was given by ICAO, the International Flight Authority, while the closure of the only airport in Albania will continue until the next day at 10:00 am. It is not known if by then an agreement can be reached between Infrastructure Minister Belinda Balluku and the civil aviation controllers for their return to work.

The reason for the suspension of work by Albkontroll controllers was the dismissal of 3 of their colleagues, as well as the drastic reduction of salary by 70% recently.

Return of colleagues to work and salary increase are two of the non-negotiable conditions of the union of controllers without the realization of which the resumption of work will not happen.

Minister Ballaku herself held a meeting with 60 employees a little while ago, but without any result in reaching an agreement.

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