NEWS FLASH
Turkish Airlines’ low cost subsidiary AJet will commence seasonal flights between Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport and Skopje. The new service will launch this Saturday, July 13, and run four times per week, on Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Some of the flights will be maintained with wet-leased Boeing 737 MAX 8 and Airbus A321 aircraft operated by SmartLynx, as well as A321s by Indonesia’s BBN Airlines. AJet itself will utilise a mix of A321neos and B737-800s when maintaining the route with its own equipment. The service is scheduled to run until October 13. It will compete directly against Pegasus Airlines. AJet already operates seasonal flights from Bodrum to the Macedonian capital. Further flight details can be found here.
How are they launching flights on such a short notice.
ReplyDeleteTurkish carriers always do that and, it seems that it works quite well
DeleteThere is demand for this route, thats why.
DeleteFlights from Macedonia to Turkey are always full and succsefully!!
DeleteFlights have bern on sale for one month
DeleteBased on the departure times, this is filling in the void between the morning and the evening flights. Hopefully they are testing the ground and might consider launching Ankara as well.
ReplyDeleteThat is true ...it is possible we see Ankara in near future.
DeleteUnexpected and I would prefer some Ankara flights, but nonetheless any increase is welcome.
ReplyDeleteAJet doesnt operate AYT-SKP flights anymore. Also Pegasus will increase the flights from SAW to SKP in August to 11 weekly which makes a total of 29 weekly operations to both Istanbul Airports.
ReplyDeleteAYT is already operated by Pegasus,Sunexpress and Freebird from SKP.
DeleteAre there any plans to open Istanbul > Ohrid (IST,SAW) this year 2024? Or is TAV generally keeping passenger numbers low in Ohrid. 2019 and even 2023 flights per Day in Summer Season were way higher then this year 2024. Not including Wizzair since they have their known issues with the engines.
ReplyDelete2019 OHD > https://web.archive.org/web/20190422005213/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohrid_St._Paul_the_Apostle_Airport
2023 OHD > https://web.archive.org/web/20230406225742/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohrid_St._Paul_the_Apostle_Airport
What really bothers me is seeing so many other Airports increasing their Passenger (Regular, Seasonal) numbers, Ohrid (which has a lot of Potential) doing literally nothing or at least not being allowed to do anything!
I think they know that if they start more regular flights to Ohrid, they will lose a considerate portion of Pax from Skopje to Ohrid! Istanbul, Zurich, Vienna, Basel, Dortmund and some more Destinations can be easily served year round to Ohrid.
2019 317,218
2020 72,086
2021 122,154
2022 232,232
2023 265,896
2024 No Numbers (For what i have seen till now they will be between 2022 - 2023 which is tragic)
Thanks for your input in advance!
SKP is not going to lose any passenger if OHD gets more flights. This summer especially all flights including those of Wizz Air are full cause they reduced the capacity and frequencies from SKP base, but the demand is there and it is constantly increasing. In 2019 Wizz Air served OHD from MXP, FMM, DTM, VIE, BSL, LTN and MMX and SKP had record numbers once again. OHD had record numbers in 2019 cause Onur Air launched IST flights, Brussels Airlines launched BRU, we had Arkia from TLV, Eurowings from DUS and STR as well as TUI from EIN and Maastricht and Brussels, all of which launched the operations that summer season in addition to the flights of Chair and Edelweiss from ZRH, LOT from KTW and WAW, TUI from AMS and i think there was some other carrier with flights from Tallinn. OHD Airport has potential yes but TAV can not do anything to attract tour operations who obviously tried serving OHD in 2019 and never came back.
DeleteThere are many videos and articles about Ohrid many regarding the very high prices and lack of staff in the hotels. Ohrid is not doing any advertisement and the ex-Yugo especially Serbia going to Spain and Portugal. Basic checks will show the huge surge of travel between Serbia and Spain. Ohrid also lost its old traditional Bulgarian tourists for nationalist issues. Add to this the current boom in Albania, it has a large coast and doing well to attract tourists. Ohrid was a hit many years ago, but lost its shine.
DeleteLol @17.06 im writing from Ohrid.
DeleteThere are more serbian tourists in Ohrid mow then ever before
DeleteOhrid hotels are fully booked despite high prices and low service level. Before any new flights they need more beds....maybe reactivating Palas hotel and others ( old PTT). They are lake front yet closed for many years. Only then will new flights be viable.
DeleteWhat high prices youre dreaming of? Paid 15€ for a room. Go and see Croatia for high prices ....
DeleteSo basicly now all Turkish carriers fly to Macedonia ... I would like to see Marmaris from SKP in future and Ankara would be also good option :))
ReplyDelete