Skopje Airport
After numerous delays the Turkish company, Tepe Akfen Ventures, will take control over Macedonia’s 2 international airports, Skopje and Ohrid, on Monday March 1, the A1 network reports. TAV will control the airports until 2030 and will invest 200 million Euros for the upgrade of existing facilities and the construction of new ones. According to the deal signed between TAV and the Macedonian Government 2 years ago, TAV has to construct a completely new modern terminal at Skopje Alexander the Great Airport with the existing runway being enlarged while communal infrastructure, a car park and a cargo building would be built together with the main project. Meanwhile, Ohrid’s St. Paul the Apostle Airport would go under complete reconstruction and modernization with a new car park, cargo building and VIP section to be built. Finally, the project outlines that a cargo terminal would be built in Štip in Eastern Macedonia.Speaking to the media, TAV said that Macedonia urgently needs a national carrier. Nearly a year after the collapse of MAT Macedonian Airlines several companies have tried and failed to create an airline in Macedonia. Jat’s Aeromak did not receive a license permit while Dubrovnik Airline’s Mont Air license request is still pending, despite the airline’s optimism with one aircraft already painted in Mont Air colours. Finally, Kontiki Travel, a tour operator in Serbia, announced that it was creating Mat Airways although there has been no fresh news on this project of late. TAV says that with fierce regional competition, Skopje and Ohrid airports can only grow if Macedonia has a national carrier. This, in turn, would lead to lower ticket prices for Macedonian travellers. TAV has said that it is trying to attract companies to set up an airline in Macedonia.
finanlly :)
ReplyDeleteSo, my dear Skopje, say goodbye to the low-cost airlines.
ReplyDeleteAnd say welcome to modified ad-hoc terms of contract that would naturally annul the tender anywhere else.
:-(
Everything will be ok.
ReplyDeleteThere will be a lot of low cost growth, since the airport's fees and incentive scheme is not touched and SKP is not any more expensive than PRN or TIA, where there were a lot of LCC growth.
Great!
ReplyDeletewas time already something to move from place, i think we will see the changes after 1-2 years maybe.if anything happens ealrier that would be perfect.
Wish all the best to TAV Aero Macedonia !
Best Regards
globetrotter,
ReplyDeleteThe real problem is exactly the current fees and 'incentive schemes', and we both know (or don't) that Skopje could have been the best 'secondary' airport for the Albanians living abroad, who are the real market.
Ever wondered why BA reallocated its LON capacity from SKP to PRN?
Anyway, good luck. SKP will need tons of it.
PRN's published fees are higher than that of SKP's. Assuming the incentives are transparent, as they should be, the incentivised fees of SKP's are lower again.
ReplyDeleteThe main reason for a lot of carriers shifting to PRN were the protectionism towards MAT. MAT rejected a lot capacity requests from many foreign carriers. Now that they are gone, there is nothing to protect, no bilaterals whatsoever.