Travel Question: Why is the return leg from Tirana so expensive?

Q I am trying to book return flights from UK to Tirana in Albania in August 2019 and noticed the ridiculously high costs for the return leg. It’s definitely increased since last summer. Any idea what’s going on?

Alistair R

A Fares between the UK and southeast Europe are through the roof in August – basically because demand is outstripping supply. For example, to reach Athens on the morning of 2 August, prices range from £172 on Ryanair’s Stansted departure to £345 on BA’s lunchtime link from Heathrow (and yes, those are one-way basic economy fares).

Tirana itself is a minority destination with a limited number of services. Indeed British Airways is so assured of the captive nature of the market that, when other services would stop for the night, an Airbus A320 is despatched from Gatwick at 10.45pm, arriving in the Albanian capital at 2.40am, and finally returning to the Sussex airport at 6.20am.

BA has some more civilised flight times between Gatwick and Tirana, as does Wizz Air from Luton. But whichever you choose, return fares are hovering around the £350 mark.

I checked Wizz Air’s prices to Ohrid, the resort in North Macedonia which is very close to the Albanian border. But, on a monopoly route, the price was around £400 return.

Fares to Preveza in northwestern Greece, about 50 miles from the Albanian border, are also high. And the same goes for Dubrovnik in Croatia, at the other end of Albania.

The best solutions I can offer: save around £100 return by travelling out from Heathrow via Vienna on Austrian Airlines. Or put together a long and interesting journey using some of the few cheap fares that are around in August. Going back to that London-Athens trip, I have organised a three-hop trip with the most of the flying on Ryanair from Cologne to Sofia in Bulgaria, which I grabbed for £30. Including accommodation, I reckon I can cover the ground in three days and have an adventure into the bargain for about £150.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder