Air Albania (ZB, Tirana) has announced it will dry-lease two A320-200s directly from GA Telesis, its first aircraft not sourced via parent company Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport).
The Albanian flag carrier plans to finalise the contract shortly ahead of the 180-seater jets' induction later this summer season. It did not, however, provide a more specific timeline and did not disclose the identity of the A320s.
The lessor owns ten A320-200s, five of which are placed with United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare), one with dormant Onur Air (Istanbul Airport), and four more are in storage.
The ch-aviation fleets module shows that Air Albania currently operates one A319-100 and one A320-200, both sourced from Turkish Airlines. The A319, ZA-BEL (msn 3142), is sub-leased from Park Aerospace Holdings/Avolon, while the A320 is owned by the Turkish carrier. Air Albania also wet-leases an ACJ319-100 from Turkish Airlines General Aviation for government operations.
The two new A320s will support Air Albania's planned network growth. In early April, the carrier launched scheduled flights from the newly opened Kukës airport in the north of the country to Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg, CH and Zurich. In July, it will launch services from Tirana to Antalya and Bodrum Milas.
