Albania Reopens Airport After Authorities Detain Protesters

Albanian Minister of Transportation and Energy, Belinda Balluku, on Friday said the situation at Albania's main airport was returning to "normality" after a work stoppage by air traffic controllers over pay brought operations grinding to a halt.

"Starting from 9am today, operations at Rinas airport in Albanian airspace are going back to normality," Balluku wrote on Facebook.

Authorities in Albania arrested three of the striking air traffic controllers on Thursday, and said essential flights would resume that day and that they would restore all commercial flights by Friday.

The Ministry of Health said 100,000 doses of COVID vaccines had now arrived by plane at Rinas after being delayed for 24 hours "by an absurd blockage".

Some of the striking air trafficker controllers were substituted with Turkish ones, and Prime Minister Edi Rama said he expected help from Greek air traffic control, too.

"We have had a response from the controllers from Turkey. Tomorrow … a group of Turks and Greeks are going to work together to guarantee the continuation of work," Rama said on Thursday on a local TV Show.

Asked how long they would stay and be paid Rama only responded: "This is an act of solidarity in very bad conditions."

He said he considered the protest "madness" but said that some of the protesters had returned to work after his appeal on Thursday, "but this is not over because a very attentive process will have to be conducted," he added, meaning a review of the protest.

The protest by air trafficker controllers started when their pay was halved due to the COVID situation. The protesters, all employees of AlbControl, the company running the airport, want their salaries restored to the same level as before the pandemic....