Wizz Air opens Skopje base

Wizz Air launching new flights from Skopje and Ljubljana

The low cost Wizz Air opened its sixteenth operational base yesterday in the Macedonian capital Skopje. The airline is in the process of launching up to six new destinations with new services to Dortmund, Eindhoven, Malmo, Bergamo, Basel and Memmingen to accompany existing flights to London and Treviso. The Macedonian government has allocated five million euros in subsidised for the flights over the next three years, in an attempt to boost tourism and travel. Wizz Air intends to employ 300 locals and if flights prove successful a new expansion is planned for the summer of 2013, with services to Brussels, Rome and Barcelona being considered.

To mark the occasion, a ribbon and cake cutting ceremony was held at Alexander the Great Airport yesterday, attended by Deputy Prime Minister Mile Janakieski, the General Manager of TAV Macedonia Zoran Krstevski and the Executive Vice President of Wizz Air John Stevenson. Also in attendance were representatives of several diplomatic missions to Macedonia. Wizz Air plans to handle at least 120.000 passengers to and from Skopje by November 2013. In its second year of operations the number of passengers is projected to rise to 135.000 and a further increase of 20.000 passengers is expected to be seen by November 2015. With Wizz Air basing an aircraft in Skopje, the airport’s numbers are set to soar in the coming months.

Wizz Air is expanding across the former Yugoslavia. Today the no frills airline will launch flights from Charleroi in Belgium to Ljubljana, to be followed by the inauguration of the London Luton - Ljubljana service tomorrow. Wizz Air, which already has a base in Belgrade, will be launching new flights from the Serbian capital as well. Flights to Basel will commence in December and services to Oslo, Paris, Rhodes and Corfu will be inaugurated next summer season. Furthermore, the airline is also said to be planning flights to Bosnia and Herzegovina next summer season.