Tirana Airport’s growth in traffic is exceptional in comparison to most of the other European airports. In the first half of 2026 alone, the airport saw an increase in traffic in excess of 15% over the previous year. Part of this growth has only become possible with the opening of the expanded apron and a new taxiway to the southern end of the runway. It had gotten so bad that in the height of summer of 2024 the airport had to shut down one of its taxiways and use it to park aircraft when the main apron was already full.

Beyond the melodious sound of its name, there’s really nothing nice to say about Tirana. It is quite an ugly city and the traffic is horrific. Its saving grace are its people. I really like the Albanians – they’re friendly, kind and warm, and naturally curious about foreigners in a way that makes you feel genuinely welcome. On Friday morning I exit the Hilton Garden Inn and make a mental note not to stay here again when I return to Tirana next year. There’s nothing wrong at all with the hotel. In fact, I found it much improved since my last visit. The problem is that my business in Tirana is usually out at the airport, 16km away. “That’s nothing”, you might say. But then you have obviously never been to Tirana and experienced the insane traffic and the somewhat creative and very expressive style of driving of the locals – half the time it’s as though they’re running late for an imminent appointment with death.

Austrian Airlines Check-In

Exactly 47 hours before departure, the Austrian Airlines app informs me that I can check in for my flight to Vienna. Only I can’t. I figure there could be a number of reasons for this, so I’m not too bothered. Then, 23 hours before departure, I receive an email from Austrian Airlines telling me that check-in for my flight to Vienna is now open. Only, it still isn’t. I press the check-in button and a new window opens on my iPhone which appears to redirect me to a dedicated check-in app for flights departing Podgorica, Tirana, and Tivat. I enter all the information that should, theoretically, already be in the PNR, but apparently isn’t. And in the end I just receive a message telling me that an unspecified technical error has occurred. You know what, I think I’ll just check-in at the airport.

The next day I arrive at Tirana at 12h40. I’m still a bit early, but my business with the Albanian Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) is done. From the offices where I was working to the terminal building it’s about 100 metres as the crow flies. The only problem, though, is that the road the ANSP sits on is public, whereas the airport road is private, which, apparently, justifies fencing it off. As a result, I have to make a detour and walk to the Tirana Airport Hotel, where the fence ends, and then backtrack to the terminal. It’s a detour of about ten minutes, which wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that the temperature outside is 35 degrees Celsius.

The Lufthansa Group checks in on row B. The very first counter is dedicated to Business Class passengers and status card holders. I go up to the counter and the young lady tells me she cannot check me in because I don’t have a ticket. She can’t see one in the PNR. So I retrieve the boarding pass for the inbound from my Wallet, and read off the ticket number on the back of it. To which she tells me that it’s useless because it’s not the same. So I tell her that an IATA ticket has a maximum of four coupons and that this is the third coupon of four. But she only looks at me with big eyes and obviously hasn’t got the foggiest idea what the hell I’m talking about. Eventually, she calls for the station manager, who tells me it’s my fault for making changes to the booking (I didn’t, but yeah… let’s go with that…). Eventually, they try inserting the ticket number on the back of my Wallet boarding pass and it works, the printer spits out a boarding pass with my correct seat assignment on 1A.

I immediately head airside, not fully sure what to expect at security with all passengers there are in the terminal. I take the escalators one floor up and there’s even a fast track for security. However, when I inquire, it turns out the fast track line is only for Ryanair and WizzAir passengers – if they pay for it. Nonetheless, I must say that security is still quite efficient, despite the queues, and there are e-gates for biometric passport holders of Schengen countries.

The Tirana Airport Scanderberg Lounge

Access to the Tirana Airport Business Class lounge is right after immigration through what looks like that proverbial hole in the wall. I don’t take any photos in the lounge because it’s very busy. From what I gather, the lounge also serves as a kind of canteen/breakroom for the Ryanair Crews. The lounge is not bad and has a buffet with a decent selection of food. Especially the chocolate cake sitting under a glass dome is a delight and absolutely delectable. There’s wifi, which works surprisingly well. Alas, there are no windows.

Austrian Airlines Boarding

As soon as the aircraft touches down in Tirana, inbound from Vienna, its status on the departure display changes to Boarding, which simply means that they’ve opened the holding pen. Our aircraft is parked far away from the terminal, so they’re going to have to bus us there. Which is not as straightforward as you might think… Tirana only has a few of those purpose built Cobus airport busses. The rest are all former scheduled busses that were once used for public transport on public roads, which means that they only have doors on one side, in this case, on the right. Our bus arrives and is facing in the direction of our aircraft, but the way it’s parked, the doors are on the opposite side, away from passengers. The gate agent steps outside and starts an altercation with the bus driver, who sees no problem with the way he’s parked and is obviously reluctant to move. Eventually, he relinquishes. He drives off and returns a few minutes later (he gets stuck in traffic on the apron…), this time stopping facing the other way and with the doors on the right side for passengers to be able to board.

Austrian Airlines Business Class Cabin & Seat

The Business Class cabin consists of three rows. The seat is very basic, with no adjustable headrests or electricity ports. Initially, there are five passengers seated in the forward cabin. Two passengers on 1D and 1F, two passengers on 2A and 2C and me on 1A. Then a woman steps aboard with her two kids. Let’s just call her duck face by merit of the hideous amounts of something she’s had injected into her face. It’s a miracle she can even speak or even open her eyelids.

She informs the purser that “I want upgrade”, de facto blocking the way for everybody else waiting to board. The purser tells her to take her original seat and wait until boarding is completed. A few minutes later, she’s back. She parks her daughter on 2F, herself on 2D and the son on 3D. The next thing I know, she walks up to me, gives me a freakish grimace that I’m guessing is supposed to be a winning smile, and tells me that “my daughter want sit first row”, and if I’d mind swapping so they can sit together.

I know, I know, sometimes my mouth is quicker than my good sense, and so I tell her that, honestly, I don’t consider her daughter is my responsibility or my problem. The issue resolves itself before it can go any further, because just then a flight attendant appears from the back of the aircraft with the credit card machine – she’s yet to pay for her upgrades. To cut a long story short, three denied credit cards later, the flight attendant, who has remained admirably calm, gives up and tells her that if they cannot make the payment, they’ll just have to back to their original seats in Economy. “Okay, I pay cash”, she tells the flight attendant, but he informs her that they can only take credit cards. And so all three disappear into the back of the plane while I remain on 1A, with the rest of the row of three to myself.

Austrian Airlines Business Class Service & Crew

The crew on this flight are friendly, definitely better than what I usually get with Austrian Airlines. My only issue, I guess, is with the cabin crew making the announcements. While boarding is in progress, he repeatedly advises passengers to stow only big bulky items in the overhead bins as the flight is full. But he has this wailing, plaintive voice that has my grinding my molars with irritation. Later on, when he delivers the safety on board instructions, he reads them off as though he’s just seeing them for the first time in his life – which does not exactly instill confidence.

The doors close, which is when the captain comes on to inform us that we’ve missed our slot because the bus took so long to arrive with the passengers (figures…) and we’ve been assigned a new slot in two to two and a half hours from now. Which is, of course, inconvenient because I have a dinner reservation later on that evening in Vienna. While we wait, the crew hand out packaged towels and still water or orange juice. Fortunately, we receive an improvement on our slot time and eventually take off running only one hour behind schedule.

Austrian Airlines Business Class Meal – Late Lunch

The meal service is another weird and tasteless dish. It’s basically a bowl of rather bland runner beans with pickled vegetables and one tomato that has been drowned in olive oil and topped off with two slices of chicken. It’s completely tasteless. Minus points for the crew are given for not removing the plastic foil before serving the dish.

The crew pass through the cabin with the breadbasket. A while later, Mr 1D asks for a second bread roll, and the purser tells him that, unfortunately, they’ve run out, which is a euphemism to avoid having to explain that she ate what was left herself, I could see her in the galley surreptitiously scoffing bread rolls through the side of the curtain… Dessert is some kind of quark thing with lemon, which is rather nice. It’s rather a bumpy ride today, so I decide to pass on a coffee from those little puny cups. The service concludes with a Mozart Kugel. I find it rather strange that the cabin crew will not present the basket with the Mozart Kugeln for passengers to take one out. Instead, the crew pick them out and hand you one.

Arrival in Vienna

I think I’ve already made it abundantly clear in some of my previous Austrian Airlines post just exactly what I think of Vienna Airport. And unfortunately, the end of this trip is another reminder of why exactly that is. When I reach immigration to enter the Schengen area, there are six counters open, but it’s very obviously not enough to accommodate all the passengers queueing to enter. There’s only one queue for Schengen citizens. In theory, there is airport staff at hand to manage the queues, but they’re just standing there rolling their eyes at the unfolding mayhem. In front if me in the Schengen line are three non-Schengen nationals, they’re holding their passports in their hands. The officer at immigration is taking apart the guy up front at the head of the queue, demanding to see his boarding pass from the last time he exited the Schengen area some time in late July. So I turn to the useless airport staff and ask them to start doing their job. All three people in front of me are obviously in the wrong queue. Just then, the woman second in line decides that it’s time to bring out the big guns. She starts yelling her head off as though this were a reenactment of the last flight leaving Saigon. “I’m begging you officer. Oh my God, please, please, my flight to Geneva is in 45 minutes”, she wails with a noticeably tearless cry that I think is definitely worth at least an Oscar nomination. The lady behind her replies by telling her that her flight to Amsterdam will be leaving in four minutes. It’s a complete mess and it takes me forty minutes before I’m through.

Getting into Vienna

I’m staying at the Hilton am Standpark in Wien Mitte. When I booked the hotel, I hadn’t realised that there are currently no trains between the airport and Wien Mitte due to construction works. However, they’ve organised a replacement bus which runs every twelve minutes. The journey takes about twenty minutes, and a return costs EUR24. In Vienna, the bus stops right behind Wien Mitte Railway Station on Marxergasse.

Conclusion Austrian Airlines

All in all, this was not the worst performance I’ve had with Austrian Airlines. The crew were not as bad as they might have been and the food… was what was to be expected. I’ll say no more. The entire trip was tedious, what with the missed slot and the ridiculous queues at passport control, both of which were beyond the airline’s control.