PREMIUM
Turkish Airlines is Skopje Airport’s busiest legacy carrier and most popular for transferring to and from Macedonia. The Turkish national airline benefits from strong economic ties between Macedonia and Turkey, a large flow of tourists from Turkey into Macedonia, as well as a significant number of transfer traffic from Macedonia via Istanbul.
Turkish Airlines performance on Istanbul - Skopje - Istanbul service by year
In 2019, the last normal year for the commercial aviation industry, 78% of all Turkish Airlines passengers flying on its Skopje service were transfers. New York was the busiest feeder route in and out of Skopje. The Big Apple is also Skopje’s busiest unserved route, with Turkish handling 39% of all indirect traffic between the two cities. Points in Turkey also fared well, with holidaymakers utilising the carrier to reach cities on the Turkish coast. Notably, the airline was also used for flights between a number of European cities and Skopje. Wizz Air, which has a strong presence in Macedonia, mostly operates to secondary airports on the continent.
Turkish Airlines' top O&D destinations to/from Skopje in 2019
In order to address the growing demand for travel between Skopje and the Turkish coast, Turkish Airlines’ lower cost unit AnadoluJet will introduce four weekly flights between Antalya and the Macedonian capital this June, increasing to daily. Services will run until the end of the summer season in October. Turkey is one of Skopje’s busiest markets. In 2019, a total of 7.147 passengers flew indirectly between the Macedonian capital and Antalya. Turkish Airlines handled 3.632 of those travellers via Istanbul. Due to the ongoing entry restrictions for Macedonian nationals on a number of markets, Turkey is expected to be extremely popular with holidaymakers this year.
Turkish Airlines will retain its position as the busiest legacy carrier in Skopje this summer. It will have the second largest number of flights and will be second largest in terms of capacity after Wizz Air. Jointly with AnadoluJet, Turkish Airlines is maintaining 956 flights this summer season (return service included) and offering 154.244 seats on the market to and from Skopje. The airline will deploy different aircraft types on its flights to the Macedonian capital, with the Airbus A319 to be most utilised on 36% of flights. It is followed by the A321 on 32.6%, the Boeing 737 series aircraft on 30.5% and the A320, which will be deployed on just 0.9% of all flights based on current schedule listings.
Skopje Airport's busiest airlines based on frequency during summer 2021
Skopje Airport's busiest airlines based on capacity during summer 2021
