Soon in Skopje
It has been a Macedonian infused week of news and the latest is sure to be warmly greeted by aviation enthusiasts. Wizz Air is once again spreading its wings in the EX-YU region. The low cost airline will commence scheduled seasonal flights from London’s Luton Airport to Alexander the Great Airport in Skopje. Flights are set to operate 3 times per week, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The service will be inaugurated on June 20.
Wizz Air’s arrival in Macedonia is the first major win for Skopje Airport’s operator, TAV, which has been working on attracting low cost airlines to the country. Wizz Air CEO, Josef Varadi, told the “Utrinski Vesnik” newspaper that the airline is considering commencing flights to Skopje out of Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam and Barcelona.
There is more good news for Macedonia’s hub with Mat Airways planning to commence flights to Amsterdam this summer season. A total of 40 flights are planned between the two cities. Skopje Airport handled 700.000 passengers in 2010, an increase of 13.7% compared to 2009.
Flight details for the new Wizz Air service can be found in the new route launches section on the right hand side.
finally something starting to move on at SKP. Great news
ReplyDeletec'mon people, WizzAir is all but a low cost. Compared to EasyJet and RyanAir they are expensive. I plan to fly to Amsterdam and from Sofia, BG it it cheaper to fly with Malev then with Wizz. On top of that Wizz flies to Eindhoven and never to Amsterdam witch is some 150km from AMS and 17 EUR one way by train.
ReplyDeleteBut overall, good for SKP, I hope more and true low cost companies will start operating there.
I miss SkyEurope....
About time, It's exciting to think that other destinations are in pipeline. Good news for Wizz Air and Skopje.
ReplyDeleteWizz Air brings good competition and helps end monopolies. They start off with low prices and then they increase them after a few months. Frankly, I'm not surprised it's cheaper to fly with Malev from Sofia to Amsterdam. However, please also realize that if Wizz Air were NOT providing competition in the form of flights to Eindhoven, the Malev flights would most definitely be more expensive than they are currently. Competition is good :-)
ReplyDeleteNow if Wizz would only commence services between Belgrade and Tivat...
The times of these flights don't coincidentally happen to exactly correlate with the flights W6 pulled from ZAG by any chance?
ReplyDeleteGood luck to the airline - with a monopoly on the route they can charge exorbitant fares and get away with it.
well done to TAV.
ReplyDeleteI hope more airlines will come and skopje could become the new transit port for the region.
134.98 EUR is the max. price they're charging at the moment for a return flight.
ReplyDeleteThank God! There will be some good routes from Skopje! Thank you Wizz Air! But I´d that to make flights to Munih an Milan.
ReplyDeleteGreat news for Skopje!
ReplyDeleteLets hope LCCs will soon arrive to Sarajevo. :/
Good news for Skopje. At least they have a prominent airline flying to their country. My guess is that Wizz Air will try to establish domination on the Macedonian market before it attracts big carriers. Who knows...maybe Wizz Air will establish a national airline for Macedonia...
ReplyDelete@Jeebusman:
ReplyDeleteWizzair will NEVER establish a national airline in Macedonia. But for sure it could base an A320 at SKP.
Hahn would serve the Cologne-Bonn area as well.
Great news, great, I have nothing to do with Skopje and Macedonia(apart wisihng to visit) but I am so happy that Macedonia and SKP has got LCC finally. I am glad for so many Macedonian people living in London and nearby who couldn't believe in such good news. This is very positive and I hope(don't see any reason) to be all year around.
ReplyDelete@Arturo
ReplyDeleteIt might. Belgrade will become increasingly competitive and Wizz Air might face difficult competition from EasyJet and others. Skopje won't have any serious competition and it paves the way for LCC dominance.
By the way, I want to congratulate Serbia for getting the green light for Category 1 from the US Civil Aviation Authority. I knew it wouldn't be long after Croatia...
Jeebus man, where did you hear that? Its fantastic news!!! ;)))
ReplyDeleteWZZ SKPLTN has been loaded from mid-Sep until end of summer schedule with ---4--7 schedule.
ReplyDeleteThis is great news! I really hope there will be more airlines who are going to fly on SKP. They deserve it, and especially now because of their new terminal.
ReplyDeleteJeebusman, you said that there discontinue of USA visas for Croats will not happened in near future.
ReplyDeleteWell, I have to disappoint you. Croatian minister of internal affairs was in USA to sign last document before discontinuation of USA visas for Croats. So, procedure is finish. Both sides announce that there are no more barriers for discontinuation of USA visas for Croatia, and that this will happened in several months, not later than the end of 2011.
wow , the first article on this blog about Macedonia without a single insulting comment. (Thanks!)
ReplyDeletegreat news that they will continue the flights til the end of the summer schedule.
btw. Ohrid had apparently 20%growth in pax but still miserable 45.000 pax in total
great news, i had some flights with Wizz and i liked it, good fleet and clean :)
ReplyDeleteand most important it is cheap!
about LTN-SKP not very cheap but all round trip for 65 eur to 100 eur is great for Macedonian people pocket!and this is long flight we must admit!
i really hope Wizz will introduce new flights soon, for sure there is need for more flights such as BVA/CIA/MAD/BCN/EIN
regards
all the best and waiting more articles like this for SKP and OHD.
One question this maybe stupid but is isn't Zurich the only destination in Western Europe that operates year round from Skopje?
ReplyDeleteIt depends on what you consider 'Western'.
ReplyDeleteYou probably wanted to add 'scheduled traffic' and 'point to point traffic' to your criteria, based on your question.
Anyway, there's Vienna, Rome and Dusseldorf, depending of levels of scrutiny.
But all of that's about to change.
;) If Luton works, I'm certain other destinations will follow.
great news. Wizzair has a steady and impressive expansion...
ReplyDeletebut on a short deviation of the topic...why the hell don't they fly to Portugal?
I believe they specialize on connecting East-European markets, where their bases are, to ethnics working in rich Western Europe countries.
ReplyDeleteOn top of that, Portugal might be tad too far for a fully loaded - 180 seats - A320.
well, there's a huge market for east europeans in Portugal. Ukranian and Romanian immigrant community in Portugal is massive. Portugal even has local Tv and radio emissions for the ukranian community. Nevertheless, connections to Kiev are poor and expensive (on ukrainian airlines solely) and Blue Air Financial problems reduced the offer of Bucharest baneasa- Lisbon.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, there's a huge need for a route BUD-FAO and PRG-FAO and Wizzair could have a saying there given the fact that Ryanair Faro base seems more focused in serving Uk and Ireland with massive deployment of offer on those markets...
Thus, huge poential for Wizz in Portugal...
and not forgetting Warsaw- Faro, gone with the closure of Centralwings, who operated KRK-FAO and WAW-FAO
ReplyDeleteReally smart choice to make the first destination to London, which is in the only country where Macedonians need to have a visa to enter :(
ReplyDelete