The South Airport will be built in Gjirokastra, enabling the return of flights to the nearly century-old aerodrome of the stone city.

Among the government’s priority projects for infrastructure in 2024, the construction of this airport is also included. The concretization of this major investment will enable the promotion of the local economy in the southern region and tourism as a priority sector.

“It is positive and desired news not just for the city of Gjirokastra, for the District of Gjirokastra, but here we are talking about a joint tourist offer between Saranda and Gjirokastra, now Saranda is half an hour away from Gjirokastra and with this increasing number of tourists that there was in 2023 and that we expect in 2024, the airport is definitely a very important point for the development of the entire southern region and will be an added value, more employment, more economic development of this whole area and especially definitely of the citizens and the municipality of Gjirokastra,” says Flamur Golemi, mayor of Gjirokastra Municipality.

Local factors and interest groups in Gjirokastra have constantly requested the revival of the aerodrome at the entrance of the city, which has been operating for about 80 years.

“It is a big window that will change the shape and positioning of this city and not only that but will make it more competitive, we have often talked as a forum that we are also with interest groups, people who are interested in changing also the way tourism will be done because we don’t need only quantity now, but we also need quality, so by landing planes, by opening something else here, there will no longer be ordinary tourism, but elite tourism will come, and elite tourism, in addition to quantity, also brings quality, which we need to hear about”, says Llambi Margariti, president of Forum for the Revitalization of Gjirokastra Airport.

For almost a century, Gjirokastra’s aerodrome has witnessed many historical events, in some cases with weight in national developments. In fact, there have been no shortage of literary works which have included the airport of Gjirokastra in their literary subjects, as in the case of the novel “Chronicle in stone” by the writer Ismail Kadare.