Air Force Press Release

Published: Tuesday, 01 December 2020 13:40

Recently, the Air Force of the Republic of Albania faces an unfounded attack by the representatives of a political entity, if they are accused of abusing the mission and the vehicles of the Air Force.

Among the information used in support of these accusations, representatives of this entity have made public a list of flights in a region of the Republic of Albania, although the release of such information, many of which is classified due to security breaches of the Armed Forces, constitutes a criminal offense punishable by law.

In this case, in view of its legal obligation for transparency and to inform the citizens, who rightly deserve to know the truth about these accusations, we declare with full responsibility that the information conveyed in the Media by the political entity is incorrect, not only in terms of flight dates or in terms of destinations, but also in terms of reasons or in terms of persons who have travelled on board of the Air Force vehicles.

It is part of the Air Force mission to provide the necessary capacities for surveillance and control of the Airspace of the Republic of Albania, to support combat and non-combat operations, searching and rescue operations and to carry out command - control of aircraft in the airspace of the Republic of Albania.

Furthermore, it is its functional duty to keep the vehicles and the military members in readiness, to guarantee flights and airspace control, transport for the needs of the Armed Forces, civil emergencies, medical air emergencies and flight assistance to the President, the Prime Minister, the President of the Assembly, the Minister of Defense and the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces.

In respect of public opinion we clarify that:

Each Air Force operational pilot, according to NATO standards, has the obligation to perform a minimum of 120 flight hours per year, to know the terrain, to exercise the task and knowledge as a pilot, and to assist in the maintenance of aircraft. This obligation is strictly observed through training flights and functional tasks, every day and every week in different cities of the country, as has happened and will happen as long as this is a NATO standard and as such applies in every member country of Alliance!

In accordance with the mission and of the Air Force tasks, 338 flights have been conducted in recent months. Only 9 had as destination the region of Dibra. We repeat, only 9 and not 22, as claimed by the political entity, of which, 4 were for medical air emergencies and the rest were civil emergencies and routine training of Air Force pilots.

Other 329 flights were to Kukes, Tropoja, Shkodra, Lezha, Mirdita, Elbasan, Kuçova, Berat, Korça, Gjirokastra, Vlora, Saranda, Fier and Tirana.

We emphasize that throughout 2020, the Minister of Defense, although the law recognizes the full right to use the of the Air Force vehicles at any time and for any task, has used this legal right only 4 times a year, to travel to the regions of Shkodra, Dibra and Gjirokastra, regions where the Regional Detachments of the Defense of the Armed Forces are located.

These 338 flights make up only 22% of the annual plan and budget item predicted for training flights! If we were to use the mathematics of the political entity, for only 338 flights that have been performed, the financial value would have been 15 times bigger than the entire annual budget of the Air Force for the item training flights, which is currently 78% nit yet fulfilled.

The Air Force not only did not misuse its funds and people for political reasons but in the conditions of a difficult year as a result of the pandemic, it has shown responsibility towards the citizens by using its human and financial capacities very carefully and without any abuse.

The exploitation and the tarnishing on of the Armed Forces military members in the name of political struggle is unacceptable. The Armed Forces is today the institution that enjoys the trust of the Albanian citizens and this has been achieved precisely thanks to the stopping of abuses and misuses that had so severely damaged its reputation during the decades of transition.