At a meeting organized in Kukës after the first plane with passengers aboard landed in the new airport, Balluku said that on June 17 the Kukës airport will be used by all the airlines.

“We started work two years ago on the second international airport in the Republic of Albania, the Kukes airport which involved intensive works on the ground. Since I come from the sector of aviation, I guarantee you that it is unlikely to build an airport faster than that and this project was delivered in record time after an extraordinary work by all the men and women in Kukës and above all by a group that worked day in and day out whom I thank from the bottom of my heart, ” said Balluku.

The Minister recalled that “back in 2018, Prime Minister Rama tweeted that Albania would have another international airport in Kukes.

“I immediately sent a message to PM telling him that Kukes airport was a military airport and very difficult to be adapted for navigation of the aircraft. He told me that we had to start work immediately. To be honest,
I was dubious whether the airport would be completed so quickly, but we managed to deliver it, ” said the minister.

Addressing the citizens, Balluku said that “you have no doubt that the airport is there and it is not 3D.”

“You have no doubt that Edi Rama knows how to do his job and deliver on commitments and does it in record time. But for all those who will take on analyzing the aviation now, I want to tell them that in aviation there are rules, there are European and national rules, which we adhere to because Albania is a European country, a country that takes steps day to day to become a member of the EU,” she added.

“As of today, this airport is operational, you just saw it, you are witnesses to this fact. Starting from today this airport will be tested by the airlines that are in contact with the operator. They will start working to sign contracts, to test the runway, to validate the procedures and to make this airport attractive for the whole area, not only for Kukës but for all the Albanian territories around, ” said Balluku.
The Minister expressed her conviction that “Kukes will turn into a new point of economic development in Albania.”

“This airport has been set to operation, a fact that we have just proved and from this moment on it is under the responsibility of the concessionaire which will enter into agreements with airlines that are not a few. From here the airlines will operate routes to many cities in Germany, England, Switzerland that do not have direct flights with Tirana, it will be the dawn of a new history for civil aviation,” she said.

/j.p/sm/