The location and connection with the most important European corridors puts Albania in a geographically strategic and unique position. Albania connects the western Mediterranean countries with the countries of the Balkans and Asia. This geostrategic position in the Balkans and Europe is considered a gateway between East and West.
Road transport
Albania's road network, including main interurban roads, secondary and urban interurban roads, consists of about 18,600 km.
Regarding infrastructure, one of the biggest projects was the completion of the Durrës-Kukës-Morinë highway, called "Rruga e Kombit". The highway in question, with a length of 170 kilometers, has brought a positive impact on trade exchanges between Albania and Kosovo.
Maritime Transport
Albania, with about 440 km of coastline, has favorable natural conditions and real resources for the development of all activities, transport, tourism, fishing, with all the coastal countries of the Adriatic basin and beyond.
Albania is accessible from several ports, which are located on the eastern side of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. Maritime transport is realized in the four main Albanian ports, Durrës Port Authority, Vlora Seaport, Shengjin Seaport, Saranda Seaport and fuel ports, Romano-Port, Petrolifera Port.
Durrës port
- It is the main and most important port of Albania
- Serves as the main gate for Corridor VIII and Corridor Durrës - Kukës - Morinë
- Covers 81.8% of all domestic transport and over 90% of freight transport
- It is the largest ferry terminal, container and passenger service.
Port of Vlora
- Albania's second largest port
- Mainly serves as a passenger port and partly as a freight port
- It is part of Corridor VIII that connects Albania, and more precisely the Ports of Durres and Vlora, with the Black Sea, Burgas and Varna.
Port of Saranda
- Saranda Port of 18,000 m2 and is located in the south of Albania in the Ionian Sea
- The main itinerary is Corfu, Greece
- The port serves mainly to accommodate domestic tourism demand, as well as tourism exchanges with Corfu and vice versa.
Port of Shëngjin
- The port of Shengjin is located in the northwestern part of Albania in the Adriatic Sea
- The total capacity is 60 million tons per year
- It is expected to accommodate trade exchanges with Kosovo, Serbia and Macedonia and beyond.
Romano Port:
- It is located 6.5 km north of the city of Durrës
- Romano Port specializes as a terminal for offshore oil and gas services and their by-products and liquefied natural gas.
Petrolifera Port:
- Located in the bay of Vlora and serves as a terminal for oil and liquefied gas
- Positioned near Greek and Italian refineries;
- It is part of Corridor VIII.
Air transport
Currently the development of Albanian Air Transport is focused on the only International Airport "Mother Teresa" of Rinas. TIA (Tirana International Airport) is managed and operated by a Public-Private Partnership.
One of the priorities of air transport is investment for domestic and tourist purposes. The construction of an Airport in the South of the country in order to develop domestic air transport, as well as the expansion of international air transport services, is an objective that can lead to the creation of a competitive market with liberalized air services.
Kukës Airport has been built, but is not operational yet. At the same time, Vlora Airport is in the concession phase, and construction works are expected to initiate soon.
Tirana International Airport ("Mother Teresa Airport")
- 17 km (30 minutes) north of Tirana city center
- 32 km (45 minutes) northeast of Durrës, the country's largest port
- Located at the crossroads between northern, southern, central and eastern Albania
- It is located very close to the main industrial areas of Albania.
Key indicators 2020:
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Number of Flights: 19,248
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Number of Passengers: 5,198,550
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Freight Volume: 2,065
- Number of companies: 17 airlines operating in 60 destinations
Kukes Airport
- The second civil airport in Albania
- The main destination is the attraction of low cost airlines (not yet in operation)
Vlora Airport
- An airport dedicated to tourism
- It is in the concession stage
Rail transport
The Albanian railway network has in use 416 km of main single railway line (with one track), in function 343.35 km and about 92 km of secondary lines of stations and industrial branches. There are a total of 45 railway stations, in which the process of exchanging trains and their processing is carried out.
The railway line belongs to:
- plain area with a leading slope up to 9 meters height for 1000 meters length
- hilly area with a leading slope up to 13 meters high at 1000 lengths and
- mountainous area with a leading slope up to 18 meters high to 1000 meters long.
The main priority is the reactivation of the railway network through private equity instruments and possible financing by international financial institutions and various donors.
Telecommunication
The Albanian telecommunication sector has improved significantly in recent years, and is one of the main development opportunities in Albania. The telecommunications sector is made up of four sectors: IT, Software Development, IT Hardware, and BPO.
Albania, although having a relatively small share in software development, offers a potential market for development. Information Technology Transfer involves the transfer of services related to IT functions. They consist, among others, of infrastructure management services, program-related services, software research and development, and IT consulting services.
The BPO sector in Albania has seen steady growth since its inception and currently employs approximately 32,000 professionals in more than 400 firms. Tirana is the center of Albania's BPO, followed by Durrës, Shkodra and Vlora. The main BPO companies in Albania are Lufthansa Industry Solutions, Deloitte, Teleperformance, IDS, Rework, Innovaway, Alba Contact, Albacall, Ernest & Young, Euroservices and LocalEyes.
The telecommunications sub-sector is more well developed in Albania. There are two (2) telecommunication companies that offer 3G / 4G to their customers such as: Vodafone Albania and One Telecommunications . Mobile market penetration has exceeded 90%, being one of the highest levels in the region. More than half of the population is using the internet and also electronic services. In 2019 there were 2,630,076 active mobile phone users, while 63% of the population has access to 3G / 4G broadband networks and 58% of households have access to fixed broadband networks.
For 2019, the operators with the largest parts of the fixed market are listed as follows:
- Albtelecom owns about 31% market share;;
- Abcom owns 17% market share;
- ASC owns 12% market share;
- Abissnet with about 9% market share;
- OA (Other operators) about 30% of the market during 2019, reaching more than 130 thousand subscribers (the operators with the largest share in this category are Digicom with about 4% of the total market share and Nisatel with about 3.2 %).