Lufthansa restores Skopje operations throughout winter

Lufthansa has opted to maintain flights between Frankfurt and Skopje throughout the entire winter season, albeit with a significantly reduced schedule. Back in May, the airline decided to suspend the service from February 1 to March 28, 2026, during the 2025/26 winter timetable, which runs from October 26 to March 28. However, this week the carrier revised its plans and scheduled three weekly flights between the two cities, operating on Mondays, Fridays and Sundays, throughout February and March, a reduction compared to the ten weekly services maintained during the same months this year.

The route will be operated with the Airbus A319 aircraft during this two-month period. According to Lufthansa’s current schedule, the airline plans to run ten weekly flights in November and December, followed by seven weekly rotations in January. The January schedule will not feature a daily service but will include two flights on select days of the week.

In 2023, Lufthansa carried 73.456 passengers on its new Skopje service for an average cabin load factor of 71.1% for the duration of the year. During its first full year of operations, in 2024, it welcomed 105.653 travellers on the route, for an average load factor of 72.7%. Data indicates that February and March saw some of the lightest loads on the route. In February and March of 2024, the carrier handled 6.269 and 7.288 passengers between the two cities respectively. This resulted in an average load factor of 53.1% in February, considered the slowest month in the aviation industry, and 64% in March.

Lufthansa commenced service to the Macedonian capital in late April 2023. It successfully applied for subsidies provided by the Macedonian government to launch the route. This support runs until December 30, 2025. Lufthansa faces no direct competition, however, low cost carrier Wizz Air maintains operations from Skopje to Hahn, some 125 kilometres from the German city's main airport.