The Competition Commission has ordered the Tirana Airport concessionaire to allow unconditional access to all companies offering taxi service from and to this airport.
At today's meeting, the Competition Commission considered the case in the taxi service market for travelers from and to the international airport of Tirana.
From the evaluation of the information during the monitoring of the taxi service market for travelers from and to the Tirana International Airport, it was found that, in the external arrivals area of the Tirana International Airport, through a signal board, access is not allowed to other licensed entities to provide taxi service for travelers from the airport to Tirana. This access is allowed only for taxis of the company Auto Holiday Albania.
Based on Article 44 of the Law "On the Protection of Competition, referring to the behavior of the company Tirana International Airport in the taxi service market for travelers from and to the International Airport of Tirana, the Competition Commission assessed the existence of an emergency case, due to the risk of committing of serious and irreparable damage to competition in this market.
For these reasons, the Competition Commission decided to take a temporary measure against the company Tirana International Airport. The Commission ordered the granting of unconditional access to all companies that offer taxi service from and to Tirana International Airport, as well as the removal of the sign "Taxi without passengers is prohibited", which prohibits the provision of this service.
In case of non-implementation of the decision on the temporary measure, the company Tirana International Airport will be fined up to 10% of the annual turnover for a serious violation of competition.
Earlier, with the decision of May 11, the Competition Commission decided to open the preliminary investigation procedure against the company Tirana International Airport in the taxi service market for travelers from and to Tirana International Airport, based on the same issue.
Tirana International Airport is the company that operates the international airport of Tirana with a concession, since 2004. In 2020, the concession company was bought by the Albanian business group Kastrati Group, for 71 million euros. Last year, ownership was transferred with a sales contract of 45 million euros to Kastrati Aviation Holding, a company with the same owner as Kastrati Group.
This concession and other enterprises providing related services have been the subject of several investigations by the Competition Authority. Last year, the Competition Authority closed the in-depth investigation procedure in the market of the management of the parking facilities of the "Mother Teresa" airport and fined the company Star Parking Albania in the amount of 1% of the annual turnover or about 1.6 million ALL./Monitor