Flights expected by July 20
Mat Airways’ Boeing B737-500 arrived from Belgrade to Skopje Alexander the Great Airport late last week sporting the old MAT livery (minus the name titles). The airline expects that a license from the Macedonian Civil Aviation Agency (ACV) is imminent after the Agency gave the technical all clear for the aircraft which it grounded a year ago due to technical faults. Darko Miličić, from the “Metrpolitain Investment Group”, one of the owners of the new airline, spoke to the Macedonian “Dnevnik” newspaper. Miličić says that the region does not have a major charter airline and that Mat Airways is keen to become one. Through Belgrade, Mat Airways will offer all tour arrangements that Kon Tiki Travel offers.The airline hopes that it will be able to begin operations by July 20. The Boeing B737-500 is now owned by the new Mat as it had been purchased at an auction in London in November 2009. The airline plans to introduce another aircraft by the end of the year. Miličić is optimistic that the airline’s name will remain “Mat”. He denied any speculation that the airline is connected with the previous management of the grounded MAT Macedonian Airlines but admitted that many former employees from the former airline now work for Mat Airways.
so why the hell does it have to be "MAT" and cause problems as if it were the only name on the planet?!
ReplyDelete@ ex-yu aviation:
ReplyDeleteWhat is going on with INI ??? Number of pax, ac movements, charters ...? Long time not a single news...
The name Mat Airways is terrible.
ReplyDeleteThe new name should be plain and simple Macedonian Airways or Air Macedonia.
The name Macedonian Airlines or Mat airways would have only connected it to the previous Mat Macedonian Airlines.
And I pray to god that another proposed name Makfax was just a rumour.
Macedonian Airways sounds by far superior than Mat Airways or Makfax and atleast it has the countrie's original name rather than having that southern neighbour of Macedonia using Macedonia's name on their so called start up airline.
This is the same Z3-AAH that MAT had, it is the same 735.
ReplyDeleteCould not agree with you anymore Anonymous #3. Very well said.
ReplyDeleteHopefully someone out there will introduce a Macedonian Airways very soon!
I really hope to see them flying very soon! It will be so refreshening to see someone new in the air after all this years of one airline operations...
ReplyDeleteMakfax was not considered as a name for this company.
ReplyDeleteI have read several post here that oppose to that, but as I said, it has never been proposed as a name for this company.
Just to let you know - Makfax is the name for one of the Macedonian news agencies!!!
The state news agency is called MIA (Makedonska Informativna Agencija), on the other hand Makfax is privately owned agency.
MAT Airways have received to license to operate flights from Macedonia today afternoon.
ReplyDeleteGood Luck MAT :)
i hope to see regular flights soon!
Regards
I think that FYROMIAN would be quite cool... It has a serious sound to it, just so fancy! FYROM deserves an airline like that :)
ReplyDeleteRegards from your neighboors in Albania :)
Unë shpresoj që ju dhe shoqëria juaj gomarit që e quan atë vetë shqiptar, të djegur për vdekje. Shqiptarët janë të brejtësve me dhëmbë të madh të bardhë dhe fytyrat e pista.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ilinden-tirana.com/
Liria për Maqedoninë e pushtuar nga shqiptarët gomarit.
Sloboda za Makedonija!!!!!!
for comment made on June 15, 2010 5:56 PM
ReplyDeleteDude, c'mon this is not a political forum and your political opinion in totally unnecessary.
If you want somethning to wrote here then, please, use only english so other people could understand your unfulfilled wishes
Thank God, there is translate.google.com ;)
ReplyDeleteBTW - I can't wait for those flights to begin! The more the merrier! :)
Surely they will be quite limited with only one aircraft? And hoping to do charters too - by cancelling scheduled services perhaps?? It just doesn't add up...
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous #3
Whilst I agree the name isn't ideal, 'Macedonian Airlines' is already registered as OAs charter airline, Air Macedonia (or even using Makedonia to differentiate) would have been a clean start...
@ Anonymous #11
If they've posted (#10) in Albanian, chances are they won't understand your request if you've asked in English!
Frequent flyer, I am anonymous 3 , as my post states Macedonian Airways is what I mentioned would be a more suitable name not Macedonian Airlines as the name would be associated with the former airline Mat and because there was a subsidary going to be established by Macedonia's neighbour.
ReplyDeleteAlso I am well aware Makfax is a news agency and I do not have any issue with the name for news agency, but I was stating that it was not suitable for airline, if the rumours were true.
Anyhow it's not a national airline for Macedonia as it will be based in Belgrade and it may benefit Serbian travellers more, but I guess it's better than nothing and most of all time will tell.
@frequentflyer,
ReplyDeleteHe only wrote in Albanian because he just used Google translate to make some derogatory remarks about Albanians. So no, he is not Albanian.
@ Anonymous #14
ReplyDeleteMy apologies for misreading your post - easy to do when the words are all so similar!
The reality of the situation (regardless of where the airline is technically 'based') is that they obviously see a business demand for direct flights out of Skopje (and Ohrid), and whether that involves under-the-table deals or government favours we will have to see...
As promoters of good aviation growth in the ex-YU region on this forum, I believe our debates should be about the intentions, repercussions and realities of the situations at hand and into the future. Unfortunately (and recent posts show this) that it is not always the case!