Pristina Airport has said it has overtaken its counterpart in Skopje by the end of July despite the lack of state subsidies for the upkeep of select routes, as well as European Union visa requirements for Kosovo passport holders. Pristina Airport's Scheduling Manager, Driton Hyseni, said, "During the period between January and July of 2019, we surpassed Skopje Airport by an additional 38.000 passengers. While on August 18 [today], we have 83 flights which will carry some 11.000 travellers. Despite the huge subsidies the government of Macedonia is offering airlines and the tourism sector, Kosovo, namely Pristina Airport, surpassed Skopje Airport by 3% or by over 38.000 passengers. During the seven-month period, Pristina Airport handled 1.338.996 travellers to Skopje Airport's 1.300.790.
Mr Hyseni noted that travellers from Kosovo generate considerable traffic at Macedonia's airports. "It should be emphasised that the citizens of Macedonia have for many years been entitled to visa free travel in the Schengen area. Furthermore, Kosovo's proximity to Macedonia generates over half of Skopje Airport's traffic, which offers affordable flights enabled through government subsidies", the Scheduling Manager said. The Kosovo Civil Aviation Authority has previously complained to the European Commission over state subsidies provided to Wizz Air by the Macedonian government since 2012 for flights from Skopje. The regulator argued that incentives should be offered by the airport operator itself and not the government. However, in 2016, the European Commission said its investigation into the matter had proved inconclusive.
Mr Hyseni believes local authorities should do more to help Kosovo's aviation sector. "The time has come for us to offer greater support to airlines and the tourism industry in Kosovo, which would provide our countrymen with more convenient and affordable travel. At the movement, Niš Airport is also being used by passengers from Kosovo. Furthermore, such support would increase the number of foreign visitors to Kosovo, which would generate additional income and provide more jobs in the aviation industry, tourism sector and other services". Mr Hyseni argued that by investing into the aviation sector, Pristina would be able to attract passengers from Skopje and Niš. Earlier this summer, Eurowings became the first low cost carrier to station an aircraft in Pristina.
Didn't someone write here the other day how PRN and SKP are not competing and that they don't care who is ahead. Guess they were wrong.
ReplyDeleteI did not see such an article.
DeleteIt was in the comment section.
DeleteAha, OK.. I thought you were saying that some official said that.
DeleteI have said many times that this is not a zero-sum game.Each airport/country has its own market and both airports and grow, so one airports growth is not dependant on other airport's stagnation or decline. Passenger figures over the last 5 years have shown that.
DeleteAny other argument is nonsensical stirring of competition or rivalry, where there should be little or no competition. We don't see these comparisons between TIA and PRN, for example, although both airports attract passengers from the other airport's catchment area. The same, as expected, happens between SKP and PRN to a degree.
I find both the headline and the line of reporting to be sensational, but clearly Driton fall for it. Genuinely, who will lose any sleep whether PRN or SKP has 2-3% more passengers than the other? Seriously?
Is it SKP fault that we still require visas to enter the Schengen Area? And just as they are close to us, we are also close to them. It works both ways. I genuinely find all this very childish and I'm disappointed that someone from PRN got involved.
^how can you say they are not competitors when the guy from the airport says Kosovo generates so many passengers at SKP and wasn't it the Kosovo CAA that complained to the EU about the subsidies in Macedonia? Obviously they see each other as compeittors because they share a lot of the same passengers among each other.
DeleteVisit Kosovo might be the only one with any sense around here.
DeleteWell, I think that Visit Kosovo wants to be friendly person.
DeleteBut business is this, and, it is normal in business to compete. In fact, in business it is not normal not to compete.
And, as far as these two airports (PRN and SKP) are competing, for us costumers from the region, that is a good thing.
Given the political climate i highly doubt anyone from around Nis would travel to Pristina to catch a flight. On top of the fact that INI probably has cheaper flights.
ReplyDeleteHowever good to see that they stopped bitching and nagging and have actually started doing something about their situation.
Congratulations Pristina. At the end of the day they do have many limiting factors.
ReplyDeleteSo how many PAX will Pristina have at the end of the year?
ReplyDeleteA free estimate Is 3.5 million.
DeleteThey handled 1.3 million passengers in 7 months and you expect them to have 3.5 million at the end of the year? Right.
DeleteI guess anonymous @09:17 ment 2.5 million..
DeleteOnce upon a time, some 10 yrs ago PRN was the third busiest in ex-Yu after Belgrade and Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteBack then flying was for most people the only way to get in and out of Kosovo.
DeleteBut they had less passengers 10 yrs ago. It's just that other airports pulled ahead. Well namely just SPU and DBV.
DeleteWhat's interesting is that neither airport has any transfer/ connecting traffic.
ReplyDeleteYes but they have a huge diaspora that only keeps on getting bigger and bigger.
DeleteLast year the Kosovo vice PM had asked the albanian counterpart to open the airport in Kukes region which is apparently a short drive from the border. If that opens and becomes and ultra low cost airports as previously indicated that is going to affect the no in PRN and the no in Skopje.
ReplyDeleteDoubt it will happen, the concessionaires in PRN and TIA would try to kill it. Remember the PRN runway scandal, these guys have a lot of influence among politicians.
DeleteAs far as I know it is being reconstructed as we speak. I agree with ya about the political influence and will likely restrict the no of passengers who will use the airport.
DeleteThe ''good'' thing is that the airport to the other side of the border and as you know the Albanian government hates TIA because of the recurrent robberies and break downs in their security system so they are so much willing in having the airport in kukes operational. Time will tell I suppose.
Construction for Kukës terminal and runway has already started and is scheduled to finish next year
DeleteFraport would never allow it!
DeleteAnd I think the concession agreement for TIA forbids Albania opening another international airport.
That airport in Kukes is a goldmine. Whoever, is going to operate it, is gonna make lots of money. The reason being its perfect location! Just look at google maps and you can see that the airport is sooooo close to PRN, SKP and the road connectivity is quite good for the region. If I had a company, would definitely compete to run the airport.
Delete@Anon09:46 I don't think TIA has absolute rights over the airspace any more. Wasn't a few years ago that the concession was re-negotiated and at the time TIA gave up on the exclusivity of the airspace and in return their concession was extended. Unless things have changes recently.
Delete@Anon09:56 That is true
DeleteTIA airport is now owned by the Chinese. The Germans sold it in 2017 I believe.
DeleteEasyjet finally here in Tirana from November 28th
DeleteWhere is easyJet launching Tirana from?
DeleteMilan Malpensa and Geneva
DeleteI think he really embellished with the claim that over half of SKP's traffic is from Kosovo.
ReplyDeletelol "over half" spilled my coffee
DeleteLet the bodies hit the floor!
ReplyDeleteGrabs pop corn.
The problem with Pristina is that the government sets the fees, not the airport operator and they want the government to do more.
ReplyDeleteWho made such a concession agreement where the government sets prices at the airport. Ludicrous.
Deleteas far as I know they always overtake SKP in July due to the huge diaspora, not sure whats the fuss about it
ReplyDeleteBecause this was supposed to be the year SKP finally moved ahead of PRN.
DeleteSo in July SKP had 241,836 pax. That is just 1,7% growth. What happened??? With so many new routes from Wizz I would expect them to perform much better.
ReplyDeleteVery odd that growth was so little.
DeleteMore people from Kosovo flew out of PRN than from SKP?
DeleteDoes it mean some routes out of SKP underperformed? If they added new flights but growth was so modest it means some routes didn't do as well?
Deleteflights were added between 31 July and 2nd of August
DeleteWe have to see how INI, SKP and PRN do in the coming months. I think PRN is in the worst position because they don't have SKP's network nor INI's low operating costs. They will have to invest the most.
DeleteYesterday I flew INI-GOT and the load was 135/144. Don't know about flight back.
W6 is also upgrading a lot of routes across its network to A321s from A320s.
DeleteSo load factors in SKP must be going down.
But switching A320 to A321 doesn't affect growth in that sense, it should boost it actually.
DeleteI am saying that despite W6 increasing the number of available seats SKP had minimal growth. So at least W's load factors in SKP are suffering.
DeleteBaba Vangja is on the forums
DeleteAnon 10.22
DeleteWhat is the point of such a comment? No contribution whatsoever.
But the question is why has Skopje never diversified its offering?
ReplyDeletedobro jutro nislija, 17 airlines is not that bad but i get your point
Delete17 airlines but one controls 70% of the market.
DeleteTrue dat.
DeleteDon't get the hate between these two airports.
ReplyDeleteThey are run by rival Turkish airport operators ;)
Deletehaha good one
DeleteWorst Turkish airport managing!!
DeleteGreat results for PRN considering Germania went bust and they had issues with air traffic controllers (ie strikes) earlier this year,
ReplyDeleteI think it is way too early for PRN to be claiming wins. Let's see how August performs.
ReplyDeleteIn August, based on the results from previous years, difference in numbers between PRN and SKP will rise.
DeleteAugust 2019 most probably will be the first month in history that PRN will reach 300k.
Pristina airport, or better said, Kosovo Government should start changing the policy and start implementing subsidies as Macedonian Government.
ReplyDeletePristina Airport is publicly owned, and its purpose should not be to generate profit for itself, but to serve to public.
With this prices, PRN is earning a good profit, but Kosovan diaspora and tourism industry are suffering. And Kosovo is getting very little..
Instead of paying for a ticket 500-600 euros and that money to go who knows where, tickets should cost, lets say. 150-250 euros, and the rest of that money would be spent in Kosovo..
The profit go to Kosovo politics and Turkish airport managing private deal corrupsion!!! That's not fair unbelievable worst Kosovo politics!
DeleteSame
That's true,
Deleteyesterday on the news I saw Pristina Airport employees will be on protest for the upcoming week, something against Pristina Limak airport worst managing happening now hidden from the airport employees!!
Best option is to end up the agreement of Pristina Limak Airport and start a new one with FRAport or different one with better managing, change the policy, change prices increase flights low fares and say goodbye to Limak because that's who is getting the most profit of Pristina Airport instead of public of Kosovo.
What these statements indicate to me is that PRN, SKP and INI are very much in competition and have a similar passenger base.
ReplyDeleteEspecially with INI probably handling 500.000 to 600.000 next year.
DeletePRN was always more internationally connected and linked to more primary airports.
ReplyDeleteWe also observe a certain fatigue in SKP, where growth is expected to slow down this year.
PRN was always more internationally connected and linked to more primary airports.
DeleteWe also observe a certain fatigue in SKP, where growth is expected to slow down this year.
OKay so Wizz Air seems to really recieve a lot of public money just like Ryanair in others countries.... Seems like somme "Wizz air shills/fanboys" forgot about that.... :D
ReplyDeleteI have a friend in Holland. He work at Easyjet Holland. They are many Rumors from Easyjet. They will Fly Amsterdam - Pristina. Zurich-Pristina. Or London - Gatwick-Pristina. Anyone have Informations for theses rumours?
ReplyDeleteCongrats Pristina!
ReplyDeleteKeep going forward -->>
Nice for them but also don't forget that its the only airport in the country but macedonians have Ohrid too, also without visa they can use sofia and thessaloniki airport where they can have more cheaper options so still skopje doing well.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that an "official" from PRN is making these types of childish statements is mind boggling to me. I expect it on these boards, but not from professionals. It's not a pissing match. You can talk up your own airport all you want, but there's no reason to talk down or to even compare yourself to another airport.
ReplyDelete