Passengers on an Arkia flight from Podgorica to Israel, which was scheduled to depart Sunday evening at 8:00 p.m., found themselves traveling overnight by bus from Montenegro to Albania. The reason: the aircraft that was supposed to pick them up never landed in Podgorica and was instead diverted to Tirana.
The Arkia aircraft departed Tel Aviv for Podgorica, but during the flight, an update was received from the airport in Montenegro regarding an operational issue affecting the ability to handle that particular aircraft there. As a result, the plane was diverted to the airport in Tirana, the capital of Albania.
Meanwhile, the passengers waiting in Podgorica for their flight to Israel received several updates during the evening regarding delays to their departure. The flight was initially postponed from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., then to 10:00 p.m., before they ultimately learned that the aircraft was in another country.
Following the change in the aircraft’s destination, an operation was launched to transport passengers between the two countries. Passengers who had arrived aboard the aircraft in Tirana were taken by bus to Montenegro, while those waiting in Podgorica were placed on buses traveling in the opposite direction, to Tirana Airport.
At around 5:00 a.m., boarding began in Tirana while additional buses from Montenegro were still on their way to the airport. Some of the passengers departed for Israel overnight, but approximately 50 passengers remained in Tirana and were accommodated at a hotel near the airport.
Passengers criticized the airline’s handling of the incident, claiming that for hours they received insufficient information and were not provided with food or drinks. They said that even the company representative who was present at the scene had difficulty providing clear answers about what would happen next.
Arkia presented a different account, explaining that the change in the aircraft’s destination had been forced upon the airline because of the operational problem in Podgorica. The company said that the diversion and the need to transport passengers between Montenegro and Albania caused the delay to the return flight to Israel. It added that passengers were kept informed and assisted by a local representative and that updates were sent to the contact details provided to the airline.