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Flight Review: Air Albania – Tirana to Istanbul

November 1, 2021 By James Clark

Flight Review: Air Albania - Tirana to Istanbul

Flight: Air Albania ZB 1001
From: Tirana (TIA) To: Istanbul (IST)

I flew with Air Albania from Tirana to Istanbul. I compared flights on Skyscanner , and this was the best option to IST (I didn’t want to fly to SAW). There were two flights available with Air Albania, so I went with the morning flight. I’ve never flown with Air Albania before either, so that was another selling point (I’m always looking to try different airlines).

TIA to IST flights

I booked on the Air Albania website, and there were the usual extras to click through to get to the price. Baggage was already included so I didn’t add extras.

Extras

The total price was 11,813 ALL (about $107 USD).

TIA-IST - outbound flight

The flight was too early for the airport bus, so I got a taxi from the city centre for 2050 ALL ($18.50 USD). I was there early so I checked in first and it was a smooth process. A covid test wasn’t required for flying to Turkey.

Air Albania check-in

Tirana International Airport is not very busy, so when I saw this Air Albania aircraft I thought it was the one we would fly on.

Air Albania

It turns out though that we were flying on a Turkish Airlines aircraft. Technically this was an Air Albania flight as it had the Air Albania flight code, but it didn’t feel like I was flying with Air Albania without flying in Air Albania metal.

Boarding flight to IST

There are no airbridges at Tirana, so we walked to the aircraft.

Terminal buses

We were given a hygiene kit once onboard, which was branded with Air Albania.

Hygiene kit

The aircraft had inflight entertainment units that weren’t in use.

Inflight entertainment

I wasn’t sure if there would be any type of meal service onboard, so I had eaten at the airport. We were served a light meal.

Breakfast pack

Breakfast was a small sandwich, a cake, and a strawberry yogurt drink.

Breakfast roll

ZB 1001 departs from TIA at 7:20 and arrives at IST at 11:00, for a total flying time of 1H, 40M. The flight arrived on time at the massive new Istanbul Airport.

Arrivals information

The airport wasn’t busy so immigration and baggage claim was quick.

Baggage claim

Overall this was a good flight option from Tirana to Istanbul.

Filed Under: Flight Review Tagged With: air albania, ist airport, tia airport

About James Clark

James Clark is the founder of Nomadic Notes. He has been a digital nomad since 2003, and Nomadic Notes features trip reports, train travel articles, and where to stay guides. He writes about transport and urban development at Future Southeast Asia. Subscribe to the weekly travel newsletter.

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James Clark from Nomadic Notes

Hi, I’m James Clark, and I've been travelling the world since 2003 while running a location independent travel business. Nomadic Notes is a travel blog featuring travel guides and notes from my travels.

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