The Albanian Public Transport Union announced on Thursday (27 July) that buses will not sell monthly passes for August due to the rising fuel cost amid the economic crisis.
Operators have asked the government for another anti-crisis package to subsidize them as fuel prices continue to be high. They said if this does not happen and they are not allowed to raise ticket prices, the service will have to close completely.
The previous assistance package was worth $5 million and was used to subsidize the cost of fuel per litre for licensed city, suburban, and intercity lines over three months.
“The Union of Public Transport requests the immediate intervention of the state authorities, for them to approve subsidies to continue the anti-crisis package or, failing that, to approve the increase of ticket prices so that the service can turn a profit. If the government fails to respond, the operators cannot offer monthly tickets (subscriptions) for the month of August 2022, which may lead to our closure.”
Rixhin Qoshja, the chairman of City Transport, said that the oil subsidy package ended in June, while the operators have been unable to cope with the increase in oil prices over the last month.
“All urban transport operators are financially unable to afford the high price of oil. For this reason, they will no longer sell subscriptions since the price is lower than the ticket price. We are against the increase in ticket prices for citizens, but if the sector is no longer subsidized, if there isn’t another anti-crisis package, the effects of the lack of support will be the bankruptcy of the companies”.
