Albania Could Face Costly Arbitration Battle After Scrapping Vlora Airport Plans

Experts say the government's move to ditch a controversial concession contract to build Vlora International Airport, at significant cost to taxpayers, highlights structural weaknesses in Albania’s public-private partnership framework. An international arbitration dispute is looming after Albania’s Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy announced last week that it has officially started the procedure to terminate the concession contract for Vlora International Airport. The decision follows a bitter legal tussle between the two consortium partners, Mabco Construction and 2A Group, which began in the autumn of 2025 over a dispute concerning the division of shares between them. There have also been large confrontations between workers from the two companies over access to the site, and a series of court rulings. The deadlock persisted even after the Supreme Court in May rejected 2A Group's requests for interim measures to secure its lawsuit. That decision was later followed by additional blocking rulings issued by the Court of First Instance Tirana. Subscribe to Balkan Insight Premium to read the full article. Please login to your account below if you are already a Premium Subscriber. Buy Premium Subscription Our Premium Service gives you full access to all content published on BalkanInsight.com, including analyses, investigations, comments, interviews and more. Choose your subscription today and get unparalleled in-depth coverage of the Southern and Eastern Europe. Buy Premium Subscription If you have trouble logging in or any other questions regarding you account, please contact us