Wizz Air begins Skopje expansion

Low cost airline Wizz Air has based a fourth aircraft, an Airbus A320, in Skopje today and is to open three new routes, reaffirming its dominance on the Macedonian market, where its passenger share among budget carriers stands at a whopping 89.5%. As a result, Wizz will launch year-round flights from Skopje to Rome Ciampino, Malta and Vaxjo in Sweden today. All of the new routes will operate twice per week. Furthermore, the airline will boost frequencies on existing services to Basel, Bratislava, Charleroi, Copenhagen, Eindhoven, Gothenburg, Malmo and Memmingen. In addition, an extra weekly flight will be added between Ohrid and Basel, for a total of four. Earlier this year, the carrier introduced a new two-weekly service between Budapest and the Macedonian capital, which will increase to three per week from late October.

Wizz Air will hold a press conference this morning at Skopje Alexander the Great Airport to mark the occasion. It will be attended by the Macedonian Minister for Transport and Communications, Goran Sugareski, the General Manager of Skopje Airport's operator TAV Macedonia, Alper Ersoy, and Wizz Air's Corporate Communications Manager, Sorina Ratz. Wizz Air's Chief Corporate Officer, Owain Jones, said, "This further underlines our commitment to Macedonia and Wizz's dedication to bringing lowest-fare travel opportunities for our customers, coupled with Wizz's great on board service on one of the youngest fleets operating in Europe. Our investment into the Skopje base with an additional aircraft, three new routes and increased frequencies on existing flights means more jobs in Macedonia with both Wizz and our business partners and will further stimulate the tourism and hospitality industries and strengthen Macedonia’s business relations". The fourth aircraft joining Wizz's Skopje fleet represents a further investment of 99 million euros by the airline in Macedonia, creating 36 additional direct jobs and taking the total to over 150 direct jobs with Wizz in the country. Speaking today, Mr Ersoy said, "I would like to express our appreciation for the decision of Wizz Air to base its 4th aircraft at Skopje Alexander the Great Airport, which is an important decision since the investment is huge and it shows that Macedonian aviation is still developing and stable. With basing 4th aircraft the airline will add three more new destinations and increase the frequencies of some of the existing routes. TAV Macedonia will continue to work on opening new routes and expanding the frequencies of the existing ones, for which we closely cooperate with Ministry of transport, and all competent governmental institutions".

Wizz Air handled a record 903.856 passengers at Skopje Airport during 2016, maintaining its position as Macedonia's leading airline. The figure represents growth of 23% compared to the previous year. As a result, the airline carried 54.8% of all passengers flying in and out of the Macedonian capital last year. During 2016, Wizz launched four new routes from Skopje. The airline played an instrumental role in boosting Macedonia's overall available seat capacity by 14.8% in 2016, making it the fastest growing market in the former Yugoslavia based on the number of available seats for sale. The low cost airline commenced operations from Macedonia in 2011 and has since welcomed over three million passengers to and from the country. During the first half of 2017, Skopje Airport welcomed 802.621 travellers through its doors, an improvement of 5.9% on 2016.