Ryanair to Open New Tirana Base for Summer 2026 with Three Based Aircraft

Ryanair has announced that they will be opening a new Tirana base for summer 2026 with three based Boeing 737-800s and 10 new routes, expanding their Tirana network to 33 routes.

Ryanair to Open New Tirana, Albania Base for Summer 2026 With Three Based Aircraft and 10 New Routes, Expanding Their Tirana Network to 33 Routes - Courtesy Ryanair

On Thursday (August 14, 2025), Ryanair announced that they will be opening a new base in Tirana, Albania for summer 2026.  The carrier will base three Boeing 737-800s in Tirana, representing a $300 million investment, and launch 10 new routes.  The new base will support over 3,000 jobs in Albania, including 100 new pilot and cabin crew jobs.  With the Tirana expansion, Ryanair will offer over 450 weekly flights on 33 routes across 13 countries for summer 2026.  This includes new routes to Birmingham, Dublin, Milan, Malta, Naples, Pescara, Poznan, Trieste, Turin, and Verona, as well as increased frequencies on nine existing routes, including Bari, London, Prague, Stockholm, and Warsaw.

In Thursday’s announcement, Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, said,

“As Albania’s only truly low fares airline, Ryanair is pleased to announce this new S26 – 3 aircraft – Tirana base.  Since launching our first Albania flights in Nov 2023, Ryanair has worked closely with our partners in Tirana Airport to deliver ambitious growth, which will now see Ryanair’s traffic grow to over 4m passengers in 2026, with 3 new B737-800 aircraft ($300m invest.) based at Tirana, supporting over 3,000 local jobs, and operating 33 routes, incl. 10 new routes to Birmingham, Dublin, Milan, Malta, Naples, Pescara, Poznan, Trieste, Turin and Verona.

“Ryanair’s continued growth at Tirana, offers Albania a massive opportunity to grow its air traffic, tourism & jobs as Ryanair plans to grow to 5m passengers p.a. and base up to 6 a/c at Tirana in a $600m investment which adds over 20 new routes by 2030, provided of course that Albania maintains its current low access costs and zero aviation taxes which stimulates rapid growth in traffic, tourism, investment, and jobs.”

Also commenting on Ryanair’s expansion, Tirana Airport’s Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Piervittorio Farabbi, said,

“Upon starting the operations in Albania back in November 2023, the Ryanair team came with a slogan of ‘Low Fares Revolution’ in Albania.  Today, we mark a pivotal moment in this revolution announcing the opening of a base in Tirana.  Starting next summer season, there will be much more opportunities to explore the world from Tirana and to expose touristic Albania to more countries.  Such decision from a partner airline, can only come as a result of a bold commitment on our side to offer operational excellence.  We have heavily invested to expand operational capacities both landside and airside with an extended runway, additional parking stands, renovated apron and taxiways and expanded terminal tripled in size. Passenger processing needs to be fast and reliable; that’s why we invested in advanced digitalization in check in, boarding and passport control.  We are proud to be among the fastest airports that are transformed from operations to a base within only 30 months.”

Ryanair Holdings, plc is Europe’s largest airline conglomerate and the parent company of Buzz, Lauda, Malta Air, and Ryanair DAC. The airline carries over 150 million passengers annually with more than 2,500 daily departures.  Ryanair serves over 200 destinations in 40 countries with a fleet of nearly 600 aircraft including Boeing 737NGs, Boeing 737-8200 Gamechangers and Airbus A320s with Lauda.  Ryanair has maintained a stellar safety record for nearly 40 years and prides itself on being “Europe’s greenest cleanest airline group,” promising customers a reduction in CO2 emissions of up to 50%, versus the ‘Big 4 EU major airlines.’  The company continues to grow across Europe and plans on carrying 300 million passengers annually by FY 2034.

Source: Ryanair