A new airline will grace Macedonia’s skies today when Skywings International begins operating scheduled services to nearly all former destinations of the now, almost defunct, national carrier of Macedonia. Skywings International will initially operate with 1 Boeing B737-300 (fitted with winglets). The aircraft has been leased from a German airline, Hamburg International, which will operate Skywings and it is expected that all flights from Skopje and Ohrid will be operated by its own staff. The aircraft has already arrived in Skopje and has received a new Macedonian registration - Z3-AAJ.The airline was to be launched today at 07.00 with an inaugural flight to Podgorica, according to the airline's website. However, the flights have not been listed at the airport in Skopje or Podgorica and neither has it been listed in the largest ticketing reservation system called Amadeus. However, the flights can be booked on the airline’s website.
The airline was registered in Macedonia in April this year and its CEO is Dragan Dojčinovski. The airline is also apparently operating a flight to Berlin at 09.45 today although it has not been listed anywhere except on the airline’s website. It will also operate flights to Brussels, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Rome, Stuttgart and Hamburg from Skopje, mostly once per week. From Ohrid it should begin operating flights from July 23 to Amsterdam while flights to Dusseldorf are expected to begin on July 25.
In case of any new developments of this relatively unknown airline, it will be updated on the blog.
Hamburg International are the same who wet lease a 737 to Kosova Airlines, who operate to about a dozen destinations from Pristina.
ReplyDeleteClearly this is a typically Balkan type of solution to a problem undoubtedly caused by corruption or incompetance, or a combination of the two.
Is this a company set up on-the-fly, or would it be right to assume this has been in the pipeline for some months given the public spat between the Macedonian CAA and MAT?
ReplyDeleteGood luck if they can make it work, but the whole way the situation was dealt with could not be described as above board...
There is a company by name in Greece! what will they say? check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Wings
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ReplyDeleteThey probably lost their license, besides, it's not like the Macedonian's are going to care what the Greeks think anyhow!
They will go to court and also they will approach Eurocontrol to ban that airline in order to protect the name. So, their license has not expired, and they are very well known.
ReplyDeleteIn Macedonian aviation the brothers have changed but the business manners have not!
They started operation from Skopje to Germany. The aircraft is operated by Airlift Service and the new registration is Z3-AAJ
ReplyDeleteCould someone tell me when skywings started officially in Macedonia as I flew with that company in March/April 2009 from Rome to Skopje. The above information would be extremely useful to me and is rather urgent. Thanks anyway.
ReplyDeleteForgot to say that I am Flying once again to Skopje but seems as though they don't fly from Rome anymore!!!!
ReplyDeletePlease, "Skywings International" in Macedonia contacts:(web site, contact phones, email of contact persons)
ReplyDelete^ Try contacting them at airliftservice@yahoo.com. They use to have a web site but it no longer exists. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
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