Russia’s Nordwind Airlines plans to launch operations between St Petersburg and Skopje, as well as increase frequencies on its existing flights between Moscow and the Macedonian capital launched last month. It comes following talks between Nordwind representatives and the Macedonian government. The Russian carrier plans on adding a second weekly departure from Moscow to Skopje starting August 2, each Monday, while services from Russia’s second largest city would commence in October. Tickets for the new flights are yet to be put on sale. Services between Moscow and Skopje are currently capped at one per week by Russian authorities, however, limitations are expected to be eased in the coming weeks.
Russian tour operators are yet to embrace Macedonia as a tourist destination and there are currently few travel packages being sold to the country. This has resulted in a lower load factor on the Skopje flights, although Nordwind sees potential in the destination as entry for Russian nationals is visa free and there are no PCR or vaccination requirements. Currently, the Moscow - Skopje service is predominately used by those continuing their journey to Montenegro, Bulgaria, Southern Serbia, Albania and Greece. Based on OAG data, during the pre-pandemic 2019, there were a total of 5.518 indirect passengers between Moscow and Skopje and a further 1.209 indirect travellers between St Petersburg and the Macedonian capital.
Commenting on the new Moscow service, the General Manager of Skopje Airport’s operator TAV Macedonia, Metin Batak, recently said, “At TAV Macedonia we are very pleased Nordwind decided to start flights between Moscow and Skopje, opening the first air link between North Macedonia and Russia in twenty years. We strongly believe this unserved route has huge potential and that it will be very useful for both business travellers and tourists alike. Nordwind is one of the largest airlines in Russia in terms of passenger traffic and boasts one of the most developed destination networks in the country”.
Great news
ReplyDeleteGood news, this shows that the market will stay strong in the coming months. Hopefully they manage to become #2 in the region.
ReplyDeleteThis seems to be Nordwind's expansion strategy. First they open Moscow then LED.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they get some subsidy on the route
ReplyDeleteConsidering they are persisting despite low LF, probably.
DeleteSince they say there were no flights between Russia and Macedonia for 20 years, does anyone remember who operated the flights 20 years ago?
ReplyDeleteProbably MAT
DeleteIt was Palair to Sheremetyevo
DeleteThanks has Aeroflot ever flown to Skopje?
DeleteThere was an Aeroflot office in Skopje close to the parliament ,so I think they have had flights to Skopje
DeleteAeroflot used to fly to Skopje back in the 80's serving the route with their TU-134 aircraft three times weekly.
Deletewow had no idea. Nice. So while Yugoslavia was still in tact Aeroflot flew to Belgrade, Zagreb and Skopje?
DeleteMAT never actually flew to Moscow.
DeleteNo, they flew after. Twenty years ago was 2000, not 1990 :(
Delete@An.13.34
DeleteI don't know about the SU office in Skopje but I do know that back in 80's Aeroflot did not fly to Skopje. They didn't even fly to LJU, SPU or DBV. The only two destinations Aeroflot had operated in ex-yu in 80's were BEG and ZAG, both from both Moscow and Kiev. There were plenty of summer season flights to ex-yu, especially Adriatic coast, by carriers from eastern Europe - Malev flew to RJK and DBV, Interflug to LJU and SPU, LOT to RJK, SPU and DBV, CSA to SPU and DBV but none of them, including Aeroflot, did not fly to Skopje, especially not three times weekly. After the disintegration of Yugoslavia, maybe, but in 80's, in ex-yu, definitely not. Maybe there were some charters sometime, but scheduled three weekly service - categorically no.
"but none of them, including Aeroflot, did not fly to Skopje"
DeleteDouble negative. Should be; but none of them, including Aeroflot, flew to Skopje.
Respect.
Absolutely correct. Aware of the mistake. Not using your own, first, mother language, trying to type as much as possible in short time, and mistake happens. Thanks for correcting. It still does not change the fact that Aeroflotnever flew to Skopje on scheduled bases during ex-yu.
DeleteConsidering that English is not your mother tongue, it is excellent. Your comments are much appreciated, especially on the history of JAT.
DeleteKeep up the good work bro.
😃
DeleteGreat the more new routes the better.
ReplyDeleteHopefuly Macedonians will also use these flights.
ReplyDeleteIs entry visa still required?
DeleteAwesome news
ReplyDeleteIt is excellent they will go to 2x weekly in order to have option for a 3-4 day trip.
ReplyDeletewhy are they not flying to Ljubljana? :(
ReplyDeleteI can't believe SKP will get LED flights before LJU.
DeleteEX-YU do you have any numbers how many indirect passengers were to LED from LJU, compared to SKP?
Delete3.428 in 2019 for Ljubljana - St Petersburg - Ljubljana
Deleteso there where 2200 more people flying from LJU and the cant get direct flights? lol
DeleteAmazing how Nordwind was barely present in the region before Covid and now they fly to most countries.
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't get these silly Russian caps and limits on frequencies.
ReplyDeleteThe West started.
DeleteYes but why keep them with places like North Macedonia or Serbia which are not in the EU.
DeleteGreat news. Keep the new routes coming.
ReplyDeleteI always thought Wizz would be the first to launch SKP-LED
ReplyDeleteWizzAir may launch SKP- LED flights next year, as their contract with SKP airport finishes next year, and if they want to continue it they will have to open another four routes like in 2019, so i think that LED is coming.
DeleteSkopje is truly growing into a great airport with great prospects. So far it handled 374.000 which is out of this world when you compare to BUD which had 600.000 in H1. SKP's rise can't be stopped now and I am sure more is to come in the coming months and years.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteLove those ex-Yu airports comparisons, especially SKP, with BUD.
DeleteWe all know why BUD has low figures. Comparing a gasto airport with an EU capital visited by nearly 14 million and having numerous universities and expats is simply unrealistic.
Yet numbers just don't lie ... they are what they are. Also what's wrong with comparing ex-YU airports with BUD? Budapest airport, a loss making business that is about to be nationalized, boomed at the expense of reaching unsustainable levels. We are seeing the consequences of this business approach now.
DeleteIt's wrong comparing because BUD because it had 16 million passengers i.e. the entire ex-Yu airports traffic and even more. And those "loss-making" unsourced comments are insane.
DeleteBudapest airport only managed to make a tiny profit before covid after like ten years. Don't understand why you are lying anon.
DeleteAlso in 2012 it had like nine million passengers which is around 25% more than Belgrade today. Things can change and SKP will keep on growing.
Ok anon 14:06 xD in 2012 you and I were also much younger. BEG is a transfer airport and SKP is a gasto airport. Check the international arrivals list. Even Slovenia with a smaller airport and smaller than N Macedonia has received almost 5 million visits.
DeleteMy point is that things change, airports grow and airports fall. Just because Budapest is ahead now doesn't mean things can't change.
DeleteThings can change, maybe BEG and SKP can get ahead of IST one day, who knows...
DeleteGiven how uncertain the political situation in Turkey I wouldn't be surprised. Kurds are really not happy. Remember how they fired missiles at SAW a few years back?
DeleteYeah exactly, that's why i said it :D
DeletePKK attack back in 2016
Deletehttps://www.dailysabah.com/investigations/2016/01/07/mortar-attack-revealed-as-the-cause-of-istanbul-sabiha-gokcen-airport-explosions
Crazy how it happened at SAW with all those Pegasus airplanes. I guess when they are not skidding off the runway they are experiencing mortar fire. lol
It has nothing to do with today's topic, but just to continue the discussion about how the things change, and basically anything is possible - back in 80's, JAT fleet had 36 planes. Emirates fleet had 8 planes. JAT network consisted of some 80 destinations, Emirate's less than 30. JAT was, along with KLM, the only airline to connect Dubai with China and Australia. And then we were finally allowed to get out of the dark, the dungeon we were imprisoned in LOL
DeleteBut we only had one sort of yoghurt Pozdrav, dont forget that...
DeleteBut we had cockta cola.
Delete☺☺
DeleteWhat happen flight to Ohrid?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean?
DeleteThey should try Ohrid - Moscow seasonally.
DeleteA full service airline like Aeroflot would be better
ReplyDeleteNordwind is a full service carrier...
DeleteI also can't understand Russian authorities limitations having in mind that there is no competition on the route and no other carrier can serve it except Russian one.
ReplyDeleteSecond
It's a pity Macedonians need visa to enter Russia.
So at first thought these two factors keep the development of this route slow.
We need e-visa which you can get online easily.
DeleteFinally. Anything other than Wizz Air
ReplyDeleteAs Russian airlines are constantly blocked from flying to Belgrade its naturally that they search for alternatives in the region .
ReplyDeleteYeah, that must be it.
DeleteActually that makes sense Anon 06.17, I didn't think of that. N4 applied for more flights from LED and MOW and got turned down both times. Serbia also blocked Rossiya from LED.
DeleteLook the time Nordwind/Flypegas started Zagreb.
DeleteIt was short after they started Belgrade where they were denied more frequencies.