easyJet will enter the Macedonian market this coming winter season with the low cost carrier to introduce services between Geneva and Skopje. Flights will be inaugurated on November 1 and initially run twice per week, each Monday and Friday, before increasing to three weekly from December. The airline faces no direct competition on the route. It will become the only budget airline to serve Skopje Airport together with Wizz Air and Pegasus Airlines. The CEO of Turkey's TAV, which runs Macedonia's two airports, Sani Sener, recently said that despite being a Wizz Air stronghold, there is room for more low cost players in the country. "Skopje is already a successful Wizz Air base, but we think there is considerable opportunity for more low cost operators", Mr Sener said.
Based on OAG data, a total of 3.923 passengers travelled indirectly between the Macedonian capital and Geneva in the pre-pandemic 2019, while the figure stood at just over 600 last year. These figures only include travellers who flew on a single itinerary via another point to reach either Geneva or Skopje. Wizz Air, which dominates in Skopje, is unable to maintain services between Switzerland and Macedonia as flights between the two are regulated through bilateral agreements. Its operations to Basel are considered as being performed to France. On the other hand, easyJet has a Swiss subsidiary.
easyJet previously said it was unfazed by Wizz Air's presence on the Macedonian market and would only operate flights to the country if there were sufficient demand. “easyJet is focused on its successful strategy to expand across Europe and operates in the best interests of the company and its customers ensuring the attractiveness of its network. This means the airline concentrates its efforts on maintaining and developing routes which prove popular with passengers. We consider competition only in regards of tactic opportunities that can be complementary to our strategy”, the airline said. As a result of the new service, Bosnia and Herzegovina will become the only market in the former Yugoslavia not to be served by easyJet.
Further details for the new Geneva - Skopje service can be found here.
Smart route. This will do well. I'm sure there will be some passengers from Kosovo too.
ReplyDeletefor sure
DeleteIt actually serves exclusively the Albanian community in Northern Macedonia and Kosovo.
Deleteexclusively ?
DeleteHave you ever met Macedonians in Switzerland ?
DeleteI have never, except Albanian ones .
I dont want to offend anyone but thats my observation .
lol
DeleteAnon 10:15
DeleteAbout 80-90.000 Macedonians in CH.And you've met none...
@17.17 congrats you qualified for top 5 most stupid posts we have read here this year
Deletemust be the same guy that trolls here on every occasion against SKP
Deletenor has he been to CH nor has he taken a flight from SKP to know whats he talking. only pure hate
^ He didnt want to be offensive.
DeleteOnly stating the obvious. Of course there are 80.000 Macedonians in Suisse.
But the swiss statistics count every person who was born in Northern Macedonia as Macedonian regardless of ethnicity.
As a Macedonian of Macedonian ethnicity (among others) myself in Suisse, and one that has looked at the topic in great detail, I can tell you there's at least 50k of us here, if not more.
DeleteThe trick is, while in these 80k there are approx 45-50k Albanians, there are many more Macedonians with Bulgarian passports.
So yeah, I don't know where in Switzerland he was looking when he said there are no Macedonians here. Suisse Romande, in particular canton Vaud, are full of Macedonians, most of which have come in the last 20 years. The majority are from Macedonia's south-east. To that you can add the ones in the German part who are the majority, however the composition of which is a bit different - average stay 25-30 years already.
Of course easyJet netdev team have been privy to all of the above information and then some for quite a while now.
DeleteOf course.
DeleteThey should have launched this 10 years and used the fact that Wizz can't fly from Switzerland, except for Basel.
ReplyDeleteThey could have even launched Basel-Skopje. It's one of Wizz Air's busiest routes.
DeleteHow many flights does W6 have?
Deletedaily
DeleteThat's a truly inspiring number, at least it inspired easyJet to join the party.
DeleteTook them a while alright after they already missed out on the BSL golden goose.
DeleteBetter late than never I guess. Or rather.. phew, finally. And a 1-5 schedule as well, it will be very welcome to the Suisse Romande catchment.
Long overdue.
ReplyDeleteSKP needs some more love this winter after TK, JU, OU, OS and Pegasus all reduced their initial schedules.
plus no QR and FZ.
DeleteHow in the world can EasyJet compensate any of those?
DeleteGood news. And they are not even using the Macedonian government's subsidies.
ReplyDeleteThe volume is so large that they don't need to. This will for sure affect flights from BSL since people didn't have convenient flights out of GVA until now.
DeleteWonder if Wizz will now reduce fares from BSL.
DeleteWhy would they? They are not expensive
DeleteIt won't affect.Wizz BSL route big time, when you know even people from Strasbourg(F), Offenburg/Freiburg (D) are using those flights
DeleteEasy Jet finally let go of its stubbornness and is starting flights!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteWelcome EasyJet!
ReplyDeleteExcited more about the bold move by Easy to test the market in Macedonia with this route, which if runs well I'm sure they will consider other destinations in near future.
+1
DeleteTime for some trip down south to the North Macedonia and a bit of JV's airport management "Re education" refreshment course.
ReplyDeleteHoping for easyjet to start flights from Switzerland to OHD as well.
ReplyDeleteBravo Skopje well done
ReplyDeleteThe fares are great
ReplyDeleteIt's great that a new low cost airline has started flights to Skopje. More so because it could get Wizz Air to become less complacent and make them launch new routes without waiting for government stimulus.
ReplyDeleteNo, not really. GVA would've been launched ten years ago if not for regulatory barriers to entry.
DeleteIf they launched something else though, perhaps. I wouldn't hold my breath though.
Really really happy about this. Just fingers crossed it doesn't turn out like the Eurowings flights.
ReplyDeleteGreat news. What other routes could we see easyjet eventually launch from Skopje?
ReplyDeleteBerlin would make sense.
DeleteWhy? Wizz Air already flies Skopje-Berlin.
DeleteTrue forgot there is SKP-BER already.
DeleteWizz won't like this.
ReplyDeleteVery nice! I think this is the second new airline at Skopje since Covid started.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the other one?
DeleteWindrose
DeleteAlso Nordwind!
DeleteNordwind
DeleteNo this will be the fifth one, first is Windrose, then Nordwind, Anadolu Jet, Air Mediterranean which operates on route BSL - SKP twice a week and now easyjet.
Deletethey started PRN years ago. they know about the region and the gastarbeiters in SWI
ReplyDeleteeasyJet is not the most adventurous airline out there so its good to see them spreading their wings across ex-Yu.
ReplyDeleteAt least it's not Wizz :D
ReplyDeleteGood news for Skopje, but it's just another uninspirational gasterbeiter route.
ReplyDeleteLOL
DeleteMajority of SKP´s destinations are based on 3 countries: Germany, Switzerland and Sweden
DeleteAlbanians
Deleteand yet the legacy carrier Switzerland has zero flights to SKP
DeleteWhat do you expect? Ibiza, Fuertaventura and Mallorca? Or BA, SAS, AF? Who can afford it? The most sustainable routes are the gasties ones (mostly Albanians visiting home lands).
Deletelol sure. only Albanians are flying to SKopje. the NLB expert again...
DeleteWell it was reported on here that the CEO of PRN said that 50% of passengers at SKP are from Kosovo*
Deletewithout proving any facts aka presenting numbers. rekla-kazala style only known in the Balkans (...his sources are probably the anons here). Only the OU's officials beat him with their statements.
DeleteIf PRN has enough Swiss traffic to fill a 340,then I'm not surprised about SKP. The route is mainly to serve Albanians..
DeleteHah Mr "Market will take of itself" again at @09:53.
DeleteFor your information, it wasn't me before but there are people who do market analysis and not just check pure passenger number on flight.
Ask your boss when Easy will start LJU :)
LJU is lost. Like one of the guys here said a few months ago, LJU would make more money if they convert to a kart centre :D
DeleteHilarious to see comments here like 'PRN airport claims 50% of SKP pax...'
DeleteWanna know the real number? 5%. First hand insight of course.
took them only 10 years...
ReplyDeletenot starting Basel-Skopje while Wizz was not around is the biggest joke...
are we done now with the Stelios-Conspiracy? :D
ReplyDeletehahaha I remembered that too.
DeleteMaybe he left easyjet's shareholding :D
Or maybe he is a businessman that only cares about $€$€$€ ?
DeleteOk, now people from North Macedonia don't have to go to Pristina if they want to fly to Geneva. Smart decision.
ReplyDeleteWe rather used BSL anyway.
Delete2.5 hrs by car/train in Switzerland vs 2 hrs by car in Kosovo, and with a better schedule as well? Yeah I know my preference.
if easyjet were a bit more adventurous theres stil many opportunities at SKP for flights from one of their bases: AMS, PRG , LGW ...
ReplyDeleteI think AMS would be particularly successful.
Deleteagree
DeleteDefinitely AMS and LGW. Was thinking about those ones earlier as well
DeleteEasyjet generally is frightened from anything in Eastern Europe.
ReplyDeleteAny new route like this is very rare and maybe only happens because of their Swiss subsidiary which is much more proactive .
Or they are afraid of Wizz.
DeleteI just think they are completely uninterested.
DeleteEasyjet is a typical outbound orientated airline .
DeleteIf there is no outbound for a route from their bases flights dont happen .
@11.51 nteresting thought!
DeleteHalleluja! the most obvious route missing in SKP's network is finally taken :)
ReplyDeletelets concentrate now on LJU route :D
I think there are more important routes than LJU.
Deletedebatable :) FRA is more important then a GVA gasto route yet a GVA route makes more sense due to diaspora. likewise LJU
Delete* than a GVA gasto route
DeleteI'm shocked it took them so long to start Skopje.
ReplyDeletewhere are the anon experts from Sunday now to protest that Geneva route started with even lower indirect pax number then SKP-SJJ :D
ReplyDeleteagain these numbers are not that much relevant for low cost airlines
True. Also it is without additional stimulus that any new route generates. The numbers give some sort of indication
DeleteI still cannot believe they don't operate to OTP, which is a huge Ghasto market as well.
ReplyDeletewill they jump on SKP-BSL?
ReplyDelete"easyJet previously said it was unfazed by Wizz Air's presence on the Macedonian market and would only operate flights to the country if there were sufficient demand."
ReplyDeleteAhahah what about Basel ?!?
even Ohrid had more then two weekly this summer
There would be so many routes to Ex Yu that could be more succesfull for Easyjet than this one.
ReplyDeleteYou can only shake your head if you consider the foreign airlines and heir odd choices .
tend to disagree. at least for the south east part of ex yu. Switzerland is the cash cow of all gasto markets
DeleteBut just for cheap lccs.
Deleteall eyes on Ryanair now ;)
ReplyDeletegreat news ! maybe Easyjet will start new routes in 2022
ReplyDeletethey only serve GVA,Basel or Berlin from the region. not much
ReplyDeleteThey serve London from Ljubljana.
DeleteWe need an easyjet base in Skopje.
ReplyDeleteHappy to see more routes and airlines coming to SKP. But I would really like the management to try and attract more European legacy airlines.
ReplyDeleteSo Podgorica, Zagreb and Sarajevo left for them to start.
ReplyDeleteSo Easyjet in december will serve Skopje from Geneva three times a week.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere i read they will increase Geneva to Belgrade to six times a week in december,is this just a rumour or fact? Does anybody have more info?
You can easily check their website. Yes, it is 6 weekly from December.
Delete^ thank you a lot!
DeleteIs this going to end up like Tuzla? Incumbent LCC is not happy with airport manager for allowing lowcost competitor to launch flights. Private jet arrives from BUD. Following the visit airport manager gets sacked and Easyjet cancels the route. Could this happen in SKP?
ReplyDeleteNo. Wizz Air can't serve Geneva from Skopje.
DeleteAdmin, why do you delete non-violating comments???
ReplyDeleteI tried 3x to post, that easyjet switzerland could make good business with zrh, but none of the comments was published.
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