Skopje and Ohrid airports stage record summer

Record breaking figures for Macedonia's two international airports

Macedonia's two international airports have continued to record strong growth this summer, with Skopje registering its busiest month since opening its doors to the public. The country's busiest airport handled 173.158 passengers last month, an impressive increase of 20.7% compared to August 2014. Fuelling the growth is Wizz Air, which now boasts 57 weekly departures to nineteen destinations from the Macedonian capital, after it based its third aircraft in the city in late June. So far this year, Skopje Alexander the Great Airport welcomed 946.310 travellers through its doors, up 16.7% on the same period in 2014.

Skopje Airport is now approaching the million passenger mark, a figure it achieved in late October 2014 for the first time in fourteen years and for only the second time in its history. “After the achievement of handling over one million passengers at Skopje Airport in 2014, which was a major milestone for us in less than five years since we started operating the airport, this year we have even higher expectations for the development of air traffic in Macedonia”, Zoran Krstevski, the General Manager of TAV Macedonia, says. In 2014, Skopje Airport added almost 224.000 passengers and recorded growth of in excess of 22%.

SKOPJE AIRPORT

Month	PAX	Change (%)
JAN	88.275	▲ 41.6
FEB	80.079	▲ 22.8
MAR	95.457	▲ 25.1
APR	109.741	▲ 3.9
MAY	117.099	▲ 7.4
JUN	118.070	▲ 1.5
JUL	164.431	▲ 24.4
AUG	173.158	▲ 20.7

Skopje's local counterpart, Ohrid, has also seen impressive figures on the back of Wizz Air's seasonal summer service from London Luton and year-long flights from Basel, which were launched earlier this year. In August, St. Paul the Apostle Airport handled 25.061 passengers. During the first eight months, the figure stood at 72.715 travellers, a jump of 41.8%. Ohrid handles the bulk of its passengers during the summer months, with 70% of travellers who visit the city still using Skopje Airport instead. St. Paul the Apostle Airport is said to be negotiating new flights for the 2016 summer season. Besides Wizz Air, Ohrid is also served by Helvetic Airways from Zurich on a year-long basis and TUI Belgium from Brussels via Skopje during the summer months. This year, Corendon Airlines and Air Berlin operated charters to the lake-side city from Amsterdam and Vienna respectively.

EX-YU airport performance
January - August

Airport	PAX	Change (%)
Belgrade	3.276.772	▲ 5.5
Zagreb	1.722.342	▲ 6.7
Split	1.474.265	▲ 10.7
Dubrovnik	1.251.484	▲ 6.2
Pristina	1.081.408	▲ 10.2
Ljubljana	997.516	▲ 13.1
Skopje	946.310	▲ 16.7
Tivat	705.920	▼ 0.4
Sarajevo	542.569	▲ 12.1
Podgorica	402.734 *	▲ 5.8

* The figure for Podgorica Airport is for the January - July period