Operator TAV Macedonia has set out to improve Skopje Airport’s connectivity with the launch of a number of new routes in 2023 and the entry of several carriers onto the Macedonian market. Lufthansa’s new ten weekly service between Frankfurt and Skopje, launching in April, will significantly improve the airport's connectivity to major hubs across the world. This year will also see low cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle enter the Macedonian market with a two weekly service from Oslo, starting in June. Following successful talks between Croatia Airlines and the airport last year, the carrier will inaugurate two weekly summer flights from Split to Skopje.
The airport also took part in this week’s Fitur international tourism fair in Madrid as it continues its drive to restore nonstop flights with Spain. There has been strong interest from both sides for the two countries to be linked with an air service ever since Wizz Air discontinued operations between Skopje and Barcelona in December 2021. Furthermore, late last year, LOT Polish Airlines held talks with TAV Macedonia in Warsaw with the aim of furtherer expand its operations in Skopje in the future. Finally, Flydubai has tentatively scheduled its return to the Macedonian capital for late October, which will in turn mark the resumption of flights to the Gulf.
The airport will also benefit from the Macedonian government’s subsidy program for the introduction of new routes from Skopje this year. Compared to the previous three public calls, all of which were won by Wizz Air, the tender includes new terms and conditions, in an attempt to diversify the country’s offer of airlines and available destinations. Carriers applying for the tender must be from Europe, have carried at least ten million passengers and generated 25 million euros in profit in 2019. Under the terms outlined in the public call, airlines must maintain flights to the newly launched destinations at least twice per week throughout the year up until at least 2026. Funding will not be provided for routes from Skopje which have been operated from the airport in the past two seasons (summer and winter). Commenting on the tender earlier this week, Wizz Air’s Acting Network Officer, Evelin Jeckel, told EX-YU Aviation News the airline was looking at the tender and saw it as an opportunity.
Skopje Airport passenger traffic in 2022
Commenting on its plans for 2023, TAV Macedonia’s General Manager, Metin Batak, noted, “We are certain that the effort invested in the day-to-day airport operations and the quality of airport services provided to our customers and clients by our experienced and professional, committed staff, as well as the great cooperation with all stakeholders and authorities in aviation, will be reason enough for the airports in Skopje and Ohrid to this year achieve at least the traffic levels from 2019 and celebrate new successes and excellent results”. He added, “We as TAV are really satisfied with the 2022 recovery and air traffic results for both Skopje and Ohrid airports. Skopje and Ohrid airports finished 2022 just 11% below 2019 levels, or with 89% of 2019’s passenger volume. Therefore, it can be concluded that TAV Macedonia, as an airport operator, is effectively and successfully mastering and overcoming the crisis and its consequences”.
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BCN route likely was cut because of lack of subsidies. 75% of the airport relies on Wizzair, Albanian gasto routes. Will be interesting to see how LH will perform and if they will affect both OU and JU in SKP.
ReplyDeleteWith inflation still crazy in the West, I wouldn't be surprised if gasto routes see softer demand. A lot of people have extra costs this year.
DeleteBCN was always rather full.
Delete"Albanian gasto routes" Ahhaaaha
DeleteBCN was in the upper half of Wizz SKP routes passenger-wise
Delete@9.06 has obv never been on a plane to/from SKP
Delete@12:53 Numbers speak for themselves. One in every three. Not very hard maths.
Deletewell the only thing he got right was 75% the rest is trolling
Deleteand its not even 70
DeleteI hope Vueling will launch flights to SKP.
ReplyDeleteWhy should they? See no local North Macedonian touroperators working with Wizzair to promote BCN. Plus, VY are currently holding a huge strike and recently tried with OTP during Xmas and not completely removed it. Bare in mind there are 700 thousand Romanians in Spain.
Deleteagain @9.06 and @9.16 is the same person and not the slightest knowledge about SKP. ravel agencies sell packages using Wizz air flights
DeleteProvide us with some examples. The Barcelona route has been halted for more than 2 years. Barcelona itself doesn't need any advertising.
Delete@14.17 well if you dont know why do you even write about SKP
DeleteI would love to see flights from Skopje to Alicante or Valencia
DeleteVueling, WizzAir or any other low cost flights from Skopje to Alicante/Valencia are a fantastic opportunity
DeleteIt's good to see TAV being more proactive in securing new routes.
ReplyDeleteHope OU has more luck with SPU-SKP than it did a couple of years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see that Skopje managed to do better than in 2019 during the summer but than this winter performed worse than 2019. Whereas at most other airports summer was below 2019 but the winter is above.
ReplyDeleteI think it's because Wizz suspended quite a few routes this winter.
DeleteTo be devil's advocate summer months pax numbers perhaps show the amount of growth the airport can expect: This was the first summer post-pandemic where people were able to travel after 2 years, and the pax. increase was merely 2%. You would've expected that everyody would finally rush to travel and visit during the summer. I may be wrong with this dynamic though.
DeleteAt most other airports, summer 2022 was below summer 2019 levels.
DeleteThere were this year also many charter fligths to Turkey,Egypt and Tunesia which also helped.
DeleteNo word about Qatar flights or Wizz flights to Abu Dhabi
ReplyDeleteI doubt Qatar will come back. As for Wizz I would expect they were waiting for the subsidy tender to nominate AUH as a new route.
DeleteWhen Wizzair introduces routes, then it is why not Ryanair.
DeleteIn this case it is Flydubai alledgedly returning and people ask for Wizz air. Why would you fly with cramped A321 to Abu Dhabi, when Flydubai would fly to Dubai? Which not only from a touristic point of view, but also from a transfer point of view is a much better option.
Excellent. I am happy to see that we are getting new legacy and LCCs routes this summer.
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming Wizz will win the tender. I doubt anyone else applied.
ReplyDeleteWe will find out soon. The tender closed a few days ago.
DeleteIt would be nice for Norwegian to also add Stockholm Arlanda flights too.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThere is also the possibility that Air Montenegro will launch flights to Skopje. They still haven't announced all of their new routes for this year.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2022/10/skopje-airport-in-talks-with-air.html
If they do it will probably be summer seasonal for P2P summer traffic. With them being unable to sell connecting flights, there is little need for them to fly to SKP.
DeleteEven with connecting flights, SKP is already connected with Copenhagen, Zurich and now with FRA, as well as with Bratislava and Istanbul, the connecting flights will only be good for Paris CDG or Prague, which will not work.
DeleteTransavia would be a great addition from AMS.
ReplyDeleteOr easyjet could start AMS.
DeleteFrom seeing what Transavia is doing at LJU with Amsterdam flights there is not even a debate that Easyjet would be a better option.
DeleteI agree that attracting more airlines from main airports is a must. Glad TAV is focusing on this.
ReplyDeleteThe positive thing is that Wizz has started adding more and more primary airports to its network.
DeleteMaybe they could see with JU to launch seasonal TIV-SKP flights? These could be operated with INI based plane.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they could even see for JU to launch INI-LJU-SKP-LJU-INI with the ATR two times per week. The government could give JU some subsidies.
Only way SKP gets more regional flights is with the ATR. A320/321is too big.
JU has barely enough planes for its own operations, let alone serving airports outside its country for which it would be difficult to get permits.
DeleteJU has no right for that
DeleteMaybe it’s time for Air France to launch SKP
ReplyDeleteThey have a very limited presence in the region so I'm doubtful.
DeleteI agree, Air France would be a nice addition to existing airlines flying to Skopje.
DeleteStarting at 3 weekly flights on their A319 and see if the demand follows and then upgrade capacity or frequency and if the A319 is too big, deploy the E190 and here you go. I'm sure there will be demand especially for transfer to transatlantic routes + gasto passengers.
Transavia, Eurowings should fly to Skp
ReplyDeleteNo, eurowings should not fly to SKP, as its mother company, Lufthansa will launch flights
DeleteEurowings could only try DUS which shouldnt be a problem to fill if they know how to promote it
DeleteWhatever happened to Gullivair's flights to SKP?
ReplyDeleteThey don't have schedule flights anymore
DeleteNobody flies on this route for more than obvious reasons.
DeleteMore like Gullivair was a total failure
DeleteEven if it were a success, nobody is interested in this route from both sides. There were barely 5 passengers on the ATR.
DeleteImpressive statistics for 2022.
ReplyDeletehave in mind the works of the runway that have slowed down traffic otherwise it would have been in front of DBV
ReplyDeletesince so many troll about this route:
ReplyDeleteSKP-BCN pax numbers for summer 2019: july - 3859, aug - 3962, sep - 3766 go and figure out the LF of this 2 weekly and then come back ... Its one of the best two weekly routes passenger wise
Will we see LJU finally?
ReplyDeleteAs LJU will be getting around 10 new daily flights and the talks for the flights between SKP and LJU are ongoing for ages, I am pretty sure that we will see those flights go ahead.
DeleteLJU is our new GVA
Delete"Wizz is looking at the tender and see it as an opportunity" How do you interprets this?
ReplyDeleteI expect Wizz and LH to apply for subsidies but only for SKP routes
ReplyDeleteBEG-YYZ via SKP 🤣
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed for Ryanair to serve Skopje from where they could fly to Barcelona, Paphos, Ljubljana, Prague, Valencia, Helsinki, Vienna, Luxembourg and Stockholm
ReplyDeletei dont even wanna think about it :)
Deletea good set but youre missing out on Weeze (the biggest gasto route) and Verona.
and change Valencia with Malaga
but we can only dream
Bought 4 retour tickets for July BRU-SKP with LOT via WAW for as little as 750 Euro. It’s a shame JU only has 2 flights per week ex BRU and CA offers a decent 2+ hours Dash ride from BRU for 400 Euro per ticket.
ReplyDeleteThat's cheap for the summer season meanwhile a retour CRL-SKP cost €1550 for 4 persons in July and August only with one backpack per person and this where really the cheapest fares. But it's not something suprising because it's every year the same with Wizzair in SKP(atleast for the area of Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.To SKP Austrian and lot are always cheaper in the Summer season and now probably Lufthansa too.
DeleteAnyone knows how those SKP-ATH flights are performing?
ReplyDeleteGood to see TAV interested in opening up SKP! Hopefully Fly Dubai will happen rather than "tentative". Need EY and QR to consider presence. Expand LOT presence and extend option to Krakow. Definitely need Paris - skopje option as well
ReplyDeleteNext is Ankara - Skopje
ReplyDeleteIf SKP wants to succeed, then it should take a cue from TIA. The most successful airport in Europe for 2022.
ReplyDeleteby what? by luring Wizzair? Oh wait!
Deleteindeed lot of airports in the region got in talks with Wizz after their succesful base in SKP
Deletemost successful in Europe? lol
Delete3.3 million travelers in 2019.
Delete5.2 million travelers in 2022.
Many airports in the former Yugoslavia and across the European continent have yet to reach their 2019 figures. Doesn't that sound like a success?
Skopje and Ohrid I can say that 75% of the traffic are ethnic Macedonians especially in summer. If Skopje can get the direct connection back with Dubai I would say the Australian Macedonians would probably increase their numbers by 20% alone.
ReplyDeleteAbout 30% of passengers in SKP are ethnic Albanians from Kosovo.
Delete21.32
DeleteAre you meaning for Sofia Airport because they are using more that airport 😂😂😂
@00.37 rofl
Delete