Turkish Airlines Macedonia’s only regular carrier
The Macedonian Civil Aviation Agency has confirmed that Turkish Airlines has been given the status of a “regular carrier”, thus granting it numerous privileges over other airlines operating to the country. Experts believe that the regular carrier status is another step towards Turkish becoming Macedonia’s national carrier. Turkish Airlines, which operates daily flights to Skopje, will now have exclusivity over other airlines in selecting destinations as well as landing and handling fee exemptions at Skopje and Ohrid airports. Turkish Airlines is the only to have been granted the status of a regular carrier in Macedonia, with Mat Airways having the status of charter airline until June. TAV has been lobbying since 2010 for Turkish to become Macedonia's national airline.The former head of Macedonia’s two airports says that the country must have a national carrier because every serious state does. Macedonia has so far had two national airlines, Palair Macedonia and MAT Macedonian Airlines which replaced Palair following its bankruptcy. MAT ceased operations in 2009 upon the order of the Macedonian Civil Aviation Agency under the pretext of a faulty aircraft. However, the airline was also high in debt. Skopje Airport handled the most passengers in 2000 when it saw over one million passengers and in 1999 when it handled 970.000 passengers. This summer B&H Airlines will launch flights from Sarajevo to the Macedonian capital while Jetairfly will operate seasonal flights from Brussels to both Skopje and Ohrid. The Civil Aviation Agency says there have been no other applications for new flights this summer. ČSA Czech Airlines will terminate flights from Prague on March 24.
Meanwhile, the former head of the Macedonian Civil Aviation Agency, Zoran Krstevski, who was instrumental in the grounding of MAT, is under investigation on suspicion of corruption. It is believed that Krstevski misused the Agency’s funds and is accused of reckless spending on mobile phone bills and car petrol.
Bravo Macedonia. Smart move. TK is a good airline and with TK there is a future.
ReplyDeleteAnd also there is no need for own national carrier, seeing all the other ex YU republics having only troubles with it s carriers.
exactly. you can t count on JU/OU/JP anyway. So go for TK !!!!
DeleteGlad you like this move, BEGLAX.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I'd be interested if this is subject to change change if another airline actually based an aircraft ;)
that sounds interesting :-)
Deletetrue - very tricky.
DeleteHowever, given that Macedonia's position in aviation is considerably worse than Croatia's and Serbia's (or Slovenia's for that matter) I say this is a decent option.
Skopje may become a tiny Turikish hub. Its future and sustainable growth will be somehow secured, but Macedonians may experience the limitations further down the road - let's say in 2020 when Skopje reaches 2 mil pax and decides that it wants to expand its operations with more airlines and connections.
"the country must have a national carrier because every serious state does"
ReplyDeletewat?
What's the 'national carrier' of the USA?
Does this mean that Turkish Airways will be able to fly from Skopje to anywhere?
It should depend upon approval of the destination country's civil aviation authority.
DeleteMore specifically, related to the ECAA countries, TK should NOT be able to fly from SKP there because it is not (1) 50%+ ECAA owned and also because (2) Macedonia has not finished phase 2 of ECAA implementation. There were exceptions however, like JU carrying revenue pax between Portoroz and Rome a few years ago, but that should probably fall into public service obligation clause because Portoroz almost had no flights at all then...
sorry for asking this here, maybe someone has a clue:
ReplyDeletewhy is Adria SKP-MUC-SKP 100€ cheaper then MUC-SKP-MUC?
( Turkish is even 150€ (!!!) cheaper SKP-MUC-SKP compared to MUC-SKP-MUC, same goes for Austrian...)
Its unfair ;)
Thanks
Probably because paying 2 times the airport fee for Munich which is larger than the one for Skopje :)
DeleteEcon 101: price is as high as market is willing to pay, and since diaspora has more money...
Deletefee might be more expensive, but that is not explaining the 150€ difference. not at all.
DeleteHow did you come to the conclusion it's more expensive?
DeleteIf you check SKP-MUC-SKP vs MUC-SKP-MUC for the same dates, the price is never going to be the same due to directionality. You can only compare, for instance, the second leg of SKPMUCSKP (MUCSKP) vs a matching first leg of MUCSKPMUC (MUCSKP), and check whether the prices are the same under same parameters - product class, fare class offered etc.
If you're not doing this kind of check, then you can get to the same conclusion for any airline. Just check Easter fares departing Western Europe and departing Eastern Europe..
well,the non-existing direct link between Germany and SKP is mainly due to the diaspora NOT "willing to pay" the high fees set by the airlines, so they travel by car and buses
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely ridiculous... The Ottomans are back in the Balkans, this time with their rip-off fares...
ReplyDeleteCX 753:
Deletethe Ottomasns are back in the Balkans. Perfect. I like it. Thanks to them, SKP has a great airport.
LH took over Swiss. Who cares? Swiss is flying high again. People have a job, get their regular wages and in Switzerland we have direct connections to many attractive long haul destination. What do I want more. Better let the Turks have some direct flights ex SKP to whatever the market will allow them, than having an own carrier, being grounded each couple months or years or wait like in BEG,ZAG and LJU for ever for better times.
as a SKP bound passenger I only need a carrier who flies safe, with a good service and the right price. Considering the conditions in SKP currently plus the past years and considering the good reputation TK has, Turkish Airines is more than a good choice. It s a terrific option and we should be happy they decided to invest into the Macedonian market.
Guys, whats this flight Belgrade Zagreb, marked as a test flight?
ReplyDeleteI assume one of JUs grounded aircraft is going back into the air and they are doing a test flight.
DeleteTurkish = Right price? Give me examples? They have rip-off fares everywhere and no one inside of Turkey flies them.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, i have nothing against the Ottomans, i prefer them to the EU that's for sure.
Hahaha!
ReplyDeleteOh people,
where in this article is written that TK will
actually make Skopje airport its hub?
The only thing i can read is that they get privileges what means that the other airlines get discriminated in favour of TK!
Dont think that SKP will attract more airlines
especially not those who are competing with TK.
In the end TK will only have to pay less than the others.
No flights beside SKP to Istanbul by them...
Oh!
And best thing for TK...direct competitors Qatar Airways or FlyDubai will get pissed off to fly there...
That you call first and second class treatment of its clients...
but any good airport should apply rules for all airlines eqally!
that s right. I doubt they would have many flights from SKP. Still they could fly FRA-SKP-IST and have on both legs full rights..
DeleteI don t really know what are important dest out of SKP, but I guess hubs like FRA,IST,MUC are always good.
Check their valentines special. Below rates are ex IST and in Y and C Class for one person. Your partner pays 1 EUR add on. However it says surcharges not included. Still flying for 1000 EUR plus taxes from IST to IAD in Business for two persons is a nice deal. Also I checked website Switzerland. They have deals around 200 CHF from BSL/ZRH to IST. That s cool enough
ReplyDeleteIstanbul Europe, CIS Countries, Middle East and North Africa 199 EUR/RT 599 EUR/RT -
Istanbul Johannesburg, Cape Town, Lagos, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Entebbe, Dar Es Salaam, New Delhi, Mumbai, Karachi, Dhakka, Chicago, Washington, Seul, Osaka, Islamabad, Jakarta, Kabil 399 EUR/RT 999 EUR/RT -
Istanbul Tokyo, Beijing, Sanghay, Ho Chi Minh, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Guangzhou, Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, Sao Paolo 399 EUR/RT 999 EUR/RT
To last Anonymous 8:38,
ReplyDeleteI hate the style you are writing!
But have also to admit that everything
you wrote is the sad truth...
Same rules for everyone!
No privileges!
TK should also add more frequencies on route Belgrade-Istanbul, there is large demand. They must offer better schedule if they want to compete with SU, FZ and all LH Groupe.
ReplyDeleteagree with you. They have to be prepared once ME carriers will arrive to BEG.
DeleteTheir problem is the size of aircrafts they have in their fleet. smallest plane is 737-700. so two flights a day to SKP,BEG with 737-700 most probably to costly, except they would place them with perfect connections ex IST
However right now:
ETA in IST from Ex YU are:
BEG 1725
LJU 1735
TGD 1530
PRN 1635
SJJ 1640 (JA code share 2055)
SKP 1615
ZAG 1705 (OU code share 1740)
connections:
AUH 2015
ADD 1850
ALP 2320
ALA 1945
AMM 1840 and 2320
TSE 1840
BKK 1945 and 2340
PEK 2345
BEY 2145 and 2350
CAI 2345
DKR 1850
DAM 2325
DMM 2145
DAR 1800
DEL 1840
DOH 2105
DXB 2000
DYU 1955
EBB 1835
EBL 2315
HKG 2355
SGN 2340
ISB 1910
JKT 2330
JED 2055
JNB 2345
KHI 0030
KZN 2110
KRT 2115
KWI 2155
MHD 2050
SVO 2150
BOM 1835
MCT 1935
NBO 1835
JFK 1740
KIX 2355
RUH 1935 and 2140
ICN 2340
PVG 2340
SYZ 2145
SIN 2330
TAS 1855/2130
TLV 0030
NRT 1840
SVX 2310
so mainly ME destnations are ok but long hauls rather poor connections. NRT is on the way to Japan cool, but on the way back flight TK 51 arrives at 2000 in IST and has no more connection to ex YU cities. So if they want us to fly from BEG,SKP etc to Far East dest, they need to improve their schedule, especially considering the good connections avbl now in DOH with QR ex ZAG
As far as I know they tried, even added 2 additional flights to Belgrade, but they couldnt get a permission from the serbian authorities. I really dont understand whats the deal with Turkey and Serbia regarding flights.. There is always some crap happening when it comes to both regular and charter flights.
DeleteWell that is called protecting your own economy and it's happening all over the world concerning "strategic" routes.
DeleteThere are already 2 daily flights (JU and TK) on BEG-IST segment and Serbian CAA agrees only on equal increase of frequencies by both airlines.
The first troubles started when various Turkish airlines introduced charters to PRN, which Serbian CAA regarded as a part of Turkish quota which had to be compensated by Serbian charter flights. Now there are regular TK flights to PRN, obviously Serbian CAA was the party that backed down mostly.
In my view Serbian CAA should not be lenient towards the Turks as it has most of the arguments on it's side: (1) Concerning summer charters, they should be flown almost exclusively by Serbian companies, as they "transport" Serbian tourism imports (Turkish exports) (just look how the Brits, German or French act in a similar situation); (2) Concerning regular traffic, TK also generates added value by flying many of these pax. long haul, so they should be forced on SPAs and CSs with JU if they wanted more frequencies. Afterall, BEG has fairly good connections to East via other hubs so it is not of a strategic interest to add those frequencies.
I would like that kind of approach towards LH also, but obviously some of our decisions in the past were made against our own interest...
Does anyone has the faintest idea if/when can we see more frequencies from SKP to IST?
ReplyDeleteThey have good deals and many flights from CH, but connections from Switzerland to Skopje via IST are horrible - they all involve a night at IST.
BTW, am I the only one who doesn't know how to use SKP website? Specifically, I cannot find a timetable! The link on the front page gives you the timetable for summer 2011 and arrivals/departures is out of date (you can see malev flights)...
don t find a schedule on their website at all.
DeleteBut u re probably still on the old website:
the new one is skp.airports.com.mk
SKP-IST don t know about more frequencies. I think Pegasus is also flying and u have Pegasus from ZRH as well. IST-SKP some flights in summer operated with 73J.
bonne soirée a Genève
Turkish airlines already has problem that no more monopoly of Belgrade-Asia is !
ReplyDeleteFirst Flydubai and then also QR and if QR comes then it will be nonstop !
Same in Zagreb,because of QR TK loose monopoly and
end of year QR go nonstop !
Concentrating on Skopje is sign of weakness for TK !
Well, TK has two issues with BEG-Asia flights:
Delete1) Crazy connection times, 8+ hrs for PEK, PVG; way too much.
2) 23kg baggage limit in Y and Y+, no option to pay for second piece
Where are our Macedonian bloggers gone?
ReplyDeleteDont think TKs new status is doing Macedonia a favour.
Maybe TK as a new "national airline"
will get subsidies from Macedonian taxpayers?
With MALEV and Czech Airlines,
Macedonians lost really good carriers...
i bet both were very popular by people from Macedonia.
Flights were always FULL!
any reason why there was a Wizz Air flight from BUD to BEG this morning?
ReplyDeleteThey simply changed the plane in their BEG base.
Deleteand an OK flight from Prague?
ReplyDeleteprobably some cargo flight
DeleteOT:
ReplyDeleteAmerican Airlines will not continue BUD service
in summer 2012 ...
@last Anonymous
ReplyDeleteDoesn't surprise me. They declared bankruptcy. This means also that they won't venture with direct flights into the ex-Yu like some had been hoping for. Their aging fleet led to high costs as well as poor brand image for passengers. Sounds familiar.
I am wondering if Hainan will keep the BUD route after the collapse of Malev?
ReplyDeletewhat do u think fellows?
Hainan and Malev are not related with each other
ReplyDelete...so i think nothing changes (?).
AA will also discontinue Chicago-Helsinki flights
ReplyDelete: (
thats actaully good news haha, we need flights to US from ex yu therefore there is a higher chance to get those flight!
Delete...But never with an US airline !
ReplyDeleteWhat a shitty mess those are .
Krstevski was really and instrument to ground MAT Airlines. He has made money out of it.. there was also an Iranian connection involved...a deal which has not happened but he made money out of it. Now, we have no more Macedonian companies...TK, LH, QT and others are taking it, but Krstevski will take a jail!
ReplyDeleteIf Zoran Krstevski goes to jail I will be the happiest person on earth. This scumbag cheated everyone in the aviation business just to make money. He made 300.000 EUR only from giving the AOC to Skywings which was a joke of an airline, dangerous for the passengers at the least!
ReplyDeleteI wrote two years ago in "Vreme" about his role in MAT grounding in an article titled as "Who has mated MAT". The saddest part of the story is that Mr. Krstevski had something personally against one of the owners of MAT. Namely, the MAT owner had overtook the girl of Mr. Krstevski and He was pist off on the MAT owner because of it. Can you imagine that it was a reason to ground MAT and to make 182 people jobless.
ReplyDeleteTurkish Airlines will be named national carrier for Macedonia and they will introduce the first non-stop flight from a ex-yu country to the US after 20 years. This info was confirmed by a TK representative during an official TK promo event in the US.
ReplyDelete