Early on in the COVID crisis, Albcontrol unilaterally decreased the salaries of their staff, including those of the controllers, by up to 70%. Albcontrol claims they had no choice as they are a private entity and work on a ‘cost-recovery’ basis. The controllers have been trying to negotiate ever since, without any result.

Over Easter 2021, a number of controllers declared themselves unfit for duty, citing stress due to the uncertainty and financial issues. Albcontrol management reacted promptly and aggressively, which caused further consternation and unrest among their colleagues: more controllers declared themselves unfit for duty, resulting in disruptions of air traffic services at Tirana airport.

Politicians and the Albanian government (Prime Minister and Min. of Transport) reacted harshly: they accused the controllers of collaborating with their political opponent, the Albanian President. They claim the aim was to cause chaos in the lead up to the elections later this month and to disrupt the country’s COVID vaccinations. They have even accused them of directly causing people to die by disrupting vaccines arriving in the country.

During the night of 8 April 2021,  27 controllers were brought to the prosecutor’s office for interrogation. At the time of writing, three of them remain imprisoned, charged with ‘abuse of office’ – an offence that normally only applies to civil servants, which they are not. They risk up to 7 years in prison. Two of them remain in jail; the third one was put under house arrest (as she is a young mother).

The Albanian government has passed a law, authorising “replacing the controllers, whether from outside Albania or inside”. Turkey promptly sent 12 controllers (6 TWR, 6 APP/ACC) who are currently in Tirana and have seemingly enabled “humanitarian” operations to take place at LATI until 1500UTC on 08APR (possibly using the Turkish controllers). NOTAMs closed both LATI and LAAA FIR until 0659UTC on 09APR. The Turkish controllers are there for 20 days – until after the Albanian elections, which appear to play a role in all this – as the arguments between Albania’s president and prime minister show…

On Friday 9 April, the remaining controllers agreed to return to work, seemingly having been threatened with dismissal and similar charges to their three colleagues. They were forced to declare themselves fit for duty, raising the grave concern that they are actually performing their duty under duress. The Albanian government seems to keep the Turkish controller as a stick behind the door to pressure the local controllers, despite the fact that they are not rated on any of the local positions.

EASA and ICAO have been made aware of the situation but have remained completely silent on the matter. Note that Albania is one of EASA’s Pan-European Partners. This is a community of non-EASA European countries with which EASA cooperates on the implementation of the EU aviation safety rules – either in the framework of comprehensive aviation agreements already concluded with the EU or in anticipation of such agreements.