Air Albania (ZB, Tirana) has secured B737-800 capacity following the arrival of TC-JZG (msn 60028) on wet-lease from shareholder Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport).

According to Flightradar24 ADS-B data, the three-year-old twinjet was positioned from Turkish's maintenance facilities at Istanbul Atatürk to Tirana on Sunday, September 29, featuring Air Albania's full livery.

Until now, Air Albania's fleet had consisted of a single A319-100, formerly in service with Turkish Airlines, on operating lease from Park Aerospace Holdings.

Air Albania currently connects Tirana with Istanbul Airport (Turkey) but will expand its network to include Rome Fiumicino, Bologna, and Milan Malpensa in Italy with effect from September 30 onwards.

Given that Air Albania does not, at present, possess a European Third Country Operator (TCO) certificate, the only way for it to serve the European Union (EU) is using capacity wet-leased from a compliant carrier, in this instance, Turkish Airlines.

Earlier this month, Managing Director Sinan Dilek told ch-aviation told ch-aviation that once Air Albania had secured its TCO, it would then revert to using inhouse capacity for its flights to the EU.