Skopje Airport anticipates handling over three million passengers this year, despite its largest carrier, Wizz Air, significantly reducing operations over the summer due to engine issues affecting a notable number of its aircraft. Macedonia’s Minister for Transport and Communications, Blagoj Bochvarski, said, “We expect for last year’s growth trend to continue and for figures to surpass that of 2023. Our expectations are for Skopje Airport to handle over three million passengers alone this year". In 2023, Skopje Airport welcomed a record 2.883.474 travellers. January started off strongly with a notable 50.5% year-on-year increase. February results are expected to deliver another strong performance.
Outside of the airport’s control are ongoing issues facing Wizz Air, which has been forced to ground over forty aircraft in its fleet in order to carry out checks on Pratt & Whitney-manufactured engines. This has resulted in the low cost airline significantly reducing summer operations across its network, with Skopje, where it held an over 60% passenger share last year, being no exception. This summer season, from March 31 until October 26, Skopje Airport will see 2.082.222 seats on scheduled services. This is down 6.5% on the summer of 2023 and is a direct result of Wizz Air’s ongoing engine troubles. Despite the airline reducing frequencies on a number of its Skopje services, it will go ahead with the launch of its planned new route between the Macedonian capital and Salzburg on April 1.
Airport operator TAV Macedonia is negotiating for the introduction of new routes. "We are in negotiations for new destinations. In the coming period, we will launch a new service to Riga, and we are also in talks with other airlines for new routes, but it is still too early to say which", Vladimir Gramatikov, TAV Macedonia’s Marketing Development and Revenue Director, told “Bloomberg Adria”. He added, “We are working on bringing new tour operators and new charter flights, but of course also scheduled services that will connect us throughout the year. We are working hard to link Ohrid with Turkey. The most frequently asked question is why we don't have flights to Spain. For the Spaniards, we are not a traditional market, and it is very difficult to convince an airline to start flying to Macedonia from Spain”.
Mr Gramatikov pointed out that competition among Europe’s airports for new airlines and customers is rife. However, he noted that the entire tourism industry in the country is involved in the opening of new routes, including tour operators, the business sector, and sometimes even local governments. He added that embassies too often take part in the process of convincing airlines in launching new services. Apart from Wizz Air’s new Salzburg route, this summer will see airBaltic inaugurate seasonal summer operations between Riga and Skopje, while Pegasus Airlines will commence scheduled flights from Antalya to the Macedonian capital.
SKP will have at least 3.2M this year. Well done!
ReplyDeleteHappy SKP is working on new routes. Wishing them success.
ReplyDeletewell thats his job isn it?
DeleteHm,,, doesn't sound like flights to DOH and/or DXB will materialize
ReplyDeleteYeah they stopped mentioning them. No airline will launch flights to Spain as well, Wizz is the only choise.
DeleteProbably Wizz will return its Barcelona flight end of this or beggining of next year.
Deletehopefully is the right word
DeleteWow Wizz will gove a lot of headaches to airports this year.
ReplyDeleteThey are doing a horrible job with OHD. They've been "working" hard on those IST flights since January
ReplyDeleteThat's because SKP relies on passengers from Kosovo while OHD can't, it's too far and roads are bad. PRN CEO already said that 50% of passengers in SKP are from Kosova.
Deletehahaha yeh the PRN CEO is an even bigger troll than you
DeleteWhy would he be a troll? Can you stop with the insults please. His statement was even reported by this portal. The man probably has access to sources we don't and he knows what he is saying.
DeleteSKP is lucky that PRN isn't ready to dump prices like SKP or TIA are doing
@14.24 calimero
DeleteWhat?
Delete@14.24 yeh his sources are the anon posts here
Delete@14:24 Just because it was reported here doesnt mean that its true. Have you even stepped at SKP airport? I havent seen so many Kosovars or cars from Kosovo there. Give me source of this information not some statment by some ceo. In fact, i see more cars from Kosovo on Fridays and Saturdays in Debar Maalo which is in the center of Skopje, driving around the same strets for hours than i have seen on the airport, and trust me i am going there quite often. So dont bother us here wth your unlogical opinions.
DeleteAnon 14:14
DeleteBut they've never published the percentage of SKP travelers from the southwest (Ohrid, Struga, Resen, Debar, Bitola) especially on those Italian/Scandinavian/Dutch flights.A big portion of these are choosing TIA over SKP since it is closer and cheaper .
Kosovar travelers are a good percentage(mostly due to some destinations like stokholm that are served only seasonly through PRN). But 50% is a stretch, i think maybe more around the 8-12% mark. Travelling from SKP i have seen Bulgarian and Serbian Passports as well, so maybe that is something to consider if one is making stats about Non-NMK travellers
DeleteWe prefer taking Tirana from Struga to travel back home to Sweden
DeleteA significan number of pax who were using SKP and OHD in the past to fly to Europe are using TIA now which has become the new regional hub.
ReplyDeleteW6 dispite its massive issues with the Pratt engines does not seem to cut capacity in Albania. Maybe the fierce competition with FR prevents them from doing so.
HAHA. Significant number?? Thatswhy they added +700k last year.
DeleteJust go away lol
@10.00 read the article first: they had +50% growth in January
DeleteIt helps when you don't have to pay for any airport services, fees or charges like at TIA.
Delete@10:00 From OHD maybe yes, but i can assure you that nobody is driving for 6 hours from Skopje region to TIA. SOF is closer for us who wants to fly to Spain. I know many people which flew from SOF last year to Barcelona and Valencia. Just yesterday when i was returing from VCE to SKP there were five pax from Debar who used SKP not TIA, so what u said is not true.
Delete@10:07 seems like a smart strategy that brings big traffic numbers and money to the country.
Deletewondering why there is no troll from Thessaloniki or Sofia who are equally far away but only from TIA
DeleteTIA has left all airports in the region far behind.
DeleteIt will have well over 10 million pax this year.
Not good news for SKP, OHD, TGD and PRN.
They are not equally far away. SKG is 3.5 hours from SKP and SOF is 4.5-5h, TIA is over 6h and the roads are bad.
Deletewhy must every article here be hijacked by TIA trolls
DeleteCause they think that they are the best as always. Anyways, SKP had a record year last year and this year will follow, just like 2025,26,27 and so on. I can assure you that nobody will choose TIA to fly on those 20 routes to Italy from SKP, its better to catch a train in Italy to your prefered destination from VCE, MXP, BLQ and CIA instead of driving 6h to TIA.
Delete10:08, It makes sense for people fom Macedonia to use SOF to fly to Spain because the prices usually are quite low. And now FR will launch Alicante and Valencia this spring and enter the "war" with Wizz. Also don't forget that the CEO of SOF is Spanish and there is a large Bulgarian diaspora in Spain. I flew Málaga-Sofia for 29€ with a small bag. FR also "attacked" Bulgaria Air on the Mallorca route.
DeleteI know i dont have nothing against us going to spain via SOF, its our easiest option.
DeleteHopefully you recover your Barcelona route in SKP to begin with. Barcelona is the gem city of Europe. I remember you had SKP-BCN in the past.
DeleteSKP-BCN stopped the moment subsidies ended for the route. SKP struggles to sustain non-gasto routes similar to PRN which goes to show both rely on the same kind of customer.
Deletestop spreading false informations. they launched it in 2015 and stopped during the pandemic beginning of 2022. (the subs were for only 3 years)
DeleteAnd please dont compare us with PRN where unknown carriers are running the airport.
Deleteon my wishlist is PRG. It will attract a lot of young travellers (like LJU)
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAre there many Czech tourists in Skopje? What about Spanish, a route to BCH and/or MAD would be fantastic!
Well at some time Wizz will have to consider more leisure routes, what are they going to launch next? Saarbucken?
Delete@10:14 I am still wondering how could BCN work for Wizz in 2016 but not now. Same thing with Larnaca. There are travel aggencies who offered Larnaca last summer with a charter from SKP, this summer they are offering the same but not with a charter, instead they offer transport to SKG and flight to LCA from there with W6.
Delete@Petar I stopped dreaming about spanish routes :) but yes that would be fantastic.
Deletethey increased Malta to 4 weekly, so who knows
DeletePrague isnt what it used to be 10 years ago. Nightlife is as good as inexistent. And its as expensive as Vienna nowadays.
DeleteIn my case I used Istanbul as connecting airport to Spain from Skopje. I found it the best connection option and money worth.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit concerning that summer capacity is down on last year and not by such a small margin. But I'm still optimistic SKP will reach its growth goal for this year. Thanks for the actual facts and figures, always appreciated.
ReplyDeleteSummer will not be as much affected as from January through May ... summer season will be full od charters from SKP and OHR.
Deleteit's going to be weird for them when wizz suddenly decides to close its base in skopje at mpn in my opinion it's going to be the same model as in bosnia I would trust a national company more....
ReplyDeletewhy would they?
DeleteThey have been in Skopje since 2011 and their base here is three times bigger then the one they had in Tuzla.
DeleteWizz will never close the base in SKP , they recieve significent money from the government and they transport more then 1.5m pax every year in country with less then 2m people.
DeleteFebruary numbers for SKP could be much lower than expected due to the Macedonian passport problem.
ReplyDeleteNot only february , march , april also , possible from May to be more good situation.
DeleteI am sure everybody got their new passports.
DeleteStill not many people didnt get the passports yet , I know alot of them still waiting , some waiting for a month to get it.
DeleteSeasonal Tivat will be great
ReplyDeleteYes cuz alot Macedonian people vacating in budva for summer and its way cheaper place then greece , , but greece is just 1.5 hour driving to the sea , while budva is 8 hours with car or bus which is roughly 10.
DeleteThey can fly from INI to TIV. I mean if they can travel to Sofia to fly to Spain then they can also go to Nis and catch a flight to Tivat.
Deleteyou comparing distances to Spain vs Montenegro? until you reach Nis you are already on Montenegrian border
Delete14:46 Niš is close to the Bulgarian border, not the Montenegrin border.
Deleteanother try: until you reach Nis with your car ... you are are already on the Montenegro border with your car driving through Kosovo. Makes no sense at all
Delete10:06 So that's what you meant by? Ok, fair enough.
DeleteSo macedonian market is not traditional market for Spain but it is for Riga?
ReplyDeleteHe wants to say that is very hard for Spain carrier to introduce direct flights to SKP , thats like gambling , so they dont want to risk , but Airbaltic already decide to take that risk and we will see how that route will be succesfull.
DeleteMay i ask how Wizz is significantly reducing the operations to SKP this summer when they will have five jets just like they had last summer? The only difference will be that they will be A320s this summer ( which still can be changed ) instead of A321s, and i dont think that 6% is a huge decrease, its not minimal hut deffinetly ist not huge. Its not like they will have 50% less flights. Plus, the charters and other summer leisure routes are here to cover that.
ReplyDeleteWizz Air's capacity will decline 15.7% year-on-year for the summer season in Skopje. The 6% decline mentioned in the article is when the airport's entire scheduled network is taken into account.
DeleteAnd thats comes around 200k pax down for entire year right?
Delete@13.55 the 3.5mil guy?
DeleteScheduled annual capacity for the airport is close to 3.4 million and is just around 4.000 seats below 2023. However, it is still too early to make definitive conclusions as winter network is not finalised by most airlines. Of course changes are possible during the summer as well. As noted by one of the commentators, Wizz Air may upgrade capacity if some aircraft go back into service earlier.
DeleteAs I heard from SKP officials this summer they expect very huge charters to alot destinations and huge diaspore back , I guess thats North america and Australia.
DeleteAll conclusions are definite by definition.
DeleteThank you ex-yu for your replay.
Delete@14:29 charters will be the same as last year and on the same routes, just LCA is canceled i think and Air Cairo from Hurghada but i am not sure.
Deleteperfect time for Eurowings to launch DUS
ReplyDeleteI would say also and Munich.
DeleteMunich is Air Dolomiti material!
DeleteIs this Air dolomiti flying in Ex yu airports from Munich ? I never heard for this airline to be honest.
DeleteMunich to Pula this summer. They are flying for Lufthansa and belong to them.
Deletethey fly as far as Bari and Brindisi or even Cluj from MUC
They have small equipment which would be adequate for the moment, that was my point. MUC is too expensive to be a lcc flight with Eurowings as suggested above
Ok thanks
DeleteSKP first was affected by the Covid like all airports,then it comes the runway rehabilatation,then it comes war in Ukraine , Wizz engines , now its the passport problem , I am pretty sure they dont have luck to show its most potential when we speak about passengers. This year they will have 3.2m pax which is great ,but the thing is that must work bring new airlines and destinations ,not sleep only with Wizz ,they giwe too much power to Wizz to rule the airport and making all other airlines not to try fly from SKP, that is very bad and wrong menagement move from Tav and the country also. But year is still on beggining I expect new routes,new airlines and good numbers in the end of the year.
ReplyDeletenobody is "making all other airlines not to try fly from SKP"
DeleteOur government is making and dont courage others to try , why ? Because they giwe all the power to Wizz couple years ago , and until today everyone know is who in the Macedonian market.Nobody wants to go against Wizz , even they are thr worts airline in Europe , they are cheap , yes they are cheap but where is the quality of service? Every day devided planes to other airpots,canceling flights , or delayed with hours , their planes are always in defect.
DeleteAnd yes that is not happeing with Turkish,Lufthansa,Austrian,LOT .. sometimes the quality in front of the quantity my friend is the best , but our politicians always choose the wrong one , thats why we are here where we are , stuck 100 years behind of everyone.
Delete"Turkish,Lufthansa,Austrian,LOT" are all flying to Skopje if you didnt know, albeit the nasty politicians ....
Deletethen there are: Aegean Airlines, Edelweiss, Easyjet, Air Baltic, Pegasus, SunExpress, Norwegian, Croatia Airlines, Air Serbia which is ok
DeleteWithout Wizz there would never be 2.88 mil.
Yes I am saying that with those airlines who will never have problems like the Wizz , yes you will pay 200Eur ticket but you know that you rich your destination , but with Wizz you pay 50Eur ticket and you dont kow will you reach your destination , thats the difference.
Delete15:12 all that airlines what you say have greater service then Wizz , wizz only pump numbers not quality , because they need numbers to get money from government, they dont care for anything else.
Delete"you dont kow will you reach your destination , thats the difference" cista rekla kazala bez vrska
Delete@14:56 Excuse me? Every day diverted planes? What? The airport had fog for some days in the beginning of this year and of course all planes will divert! Mine diverted to SKG ( thessaloniki ) and that isnt Wizz air's fold, is it??? They were very profesional and brought us with buses to SKP airport. Second think, flights delayed for hours?? I can assure you that JU and LH have more delayes, the way you are talking is like everything which is operated by wizz is always delayed which is totally not true. Their planes are not defect, in fact they have one of the newest fleet just like easyJet and Ryanair. LH, KLM, OU, JU, BA, TK, Air france, Tarom all have older fleet compared to lcc"s which is very logical as lcc's get new planes which are more modern and need less maintenance. Dont try to bring the p&w engine problem here cause that is not wizz fold and wizz is not the only airline affected by that problem with the engines.
DeleteOfc other airlines will be afraid to step in the market in skp as they know that they will be destroyed by Wizz Air. Its not our governments fold that Wizz is so stable here, and believe considering our governments in the past 30 years, we should be happy that at least we have an airline which offers us direct flights at least to 30 destinations from SKP, better this then doing public calls like LJU every day and hoping some airlines will apply soon with flights during the peak of the year, just like Norwegian operates from July to august to SKP.
+100
DeleteWhy we cant see Discover,Condor,Transavia,Vueling,Ryanair,Eurowings from SKP ? And I guess we will never see Doha and Dubai again also. Not mentioning Airfrance,Klm,BA ...
ReplyDeleteOhrid this summer will have:Manchester,London,Warsaw,Krakow,Belgrade,Istanbul,Amsterdam which is great , the only people missing will be Tel Aviv guests.
ReplyDeleteHad too many Rakija today for Прочка ?
Deletebecause i already booked OHD-IST on Tukrish Airlines! and im about to book Krakow-Ohrid with Ryanair
In fact Ohrid will have Warsaw and Katowice which is next to krakow and both are charters by LOT. Amsterdam is covered by TUI so is Manchester, London Gatwick is discontinued. Tel Aviv isnt the only route that is missing, Brussels, Maastricht, Eindhoven, Istanbul, Luton, Gatwick, Malmo, Milan, Friedrichshafen and Basel are missing as well.
DeleteChair and Edelweiss are stepping in for Basel but only for peak summer, both are up to 3 weekly. Then there is new 1x to Radom (Warsaw) beside WAW 1x flight
DeleteNo they are not lauching BSL. Where did you get that information from?
DeleteThrey are obvioisly increasing ZRH if it was not clear enough for you
DeleteI was speaking about the summer charters that are missing not about the regular that Wizz close.
DeleteManchester and London will be schedule for the summer peak, as well as Amsterdam,Katowice,Warsaw,Belgrade,as well as the new one Istanbul. i made mistake meaning Katowice not Krakow.
Otrezna? Ne bas, what new Istanbul service and which London flight you ate talking about
Deletelol. TAV ain't negotiating sh.t, they never have.
ReplyDeleteSKP needs Ryanair...
ReplyDeleteit is the elephant in the room :)
DeleteFor the Spaniards, we are not a traditional market, and it is very difficult to convince an airline to start flying to Macedonia from Spain”.
ReplyDeleteWow, how the H they are coming to Ohrid, Bitola etc.and how people working and living there are traveling?
Will Malmö - Ohrid open this summer?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't seem like it, although i wish it would happen
DeleteMaybe in October they will open Malmö Ohrid
Delete