Flydubai and Qatar Airways undecided over Skopje return

Gulf carriers Flydubai and Qatar Airways are yet to resume operations to Skopje, two and a half years following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, despite restoring the remainder of their networks in the former Yugoslavia. Flydubai launched flights to Skopje in October 2012 and maintained the service until the onset of Covid-19. In its last three years of operations, passenger numbers averaged at around 27.000 per year. Flights were initially to be restored in October 2020 but were moved to March 2021, then November of that year, before being shifted to late October 2022. Reservations have now been closed entirely for the route. Since the pandemic, Flydubai launched operations to Ljubljana and increased its frequencies to Belgrade, while restoring flights to Zagreb, as well as seasonal services to Dubrovnik and Tivat this summer.

Qatar Airways, which this week posted its biggest profit on record, amounting to 1.5 billion US dollars last year, has told EX-YU Aviation News services to Skopje will resume once commercially viable, as a result of the pandemic. However, the Qatari carrier has restored the majority of its pre-Covid network and launched several new routes since. The Macedonian Minister for Transport and Communications, Blagoj Bačvarski, has held talks with the Qatari Ambassador to the country, where he emphasised the need for Qatar Airways to restore services between Doha and Skopje. “It is especially important for us to renew the flights between Skopje and Doha, in order to maintain business relations between the two countries”, Mr Bačvarski said.

In 2019, the majority of Qatar Airways’ Skopje passengers were transfers. They primarily originated or were destined for the Australian market – 33%, followed by India 7%, Thailand 5% and Singapore 4%. The airline has scheduled its return to the Macedonian capital on several occasions, however, reservations for the route have been closed since last year. In its last full years of operations, in 2019, Qatar Airways handled 29.856 passengers on its flights to and from Skopje, which was almost the same as the year before, when it welcomed 29.874 travellers on the route. Qatar Airways is the official carrier of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which takes place in Doha in November and December and is facing a shortage of aircraft, although these are primarily wide-body jets.