Grand opening next week
Next Tuesday the new terminal building at Skopje’s Alexander the Great Airport will open. New details are now emerging regarding the grand opening on September 6. The opening ceremony will take place at 13.30. Turkish Airlines is chartering a special flight to the Macedonian capital on Tuesday carrying members of the Turkish Government and businessmen. Shortly after, Turkish’s scheduled service from Istanbul will touch down in Skopje together with the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who will open the new terminal with his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Gruevski. As a result, Turkish Airlines will be the first to use the new facilities. Later that day Malév, Adria Airways, Pegasus Airlines, Croatia Airlines and Jat Airways will also use the new terminal.
TAV, the airport’s operator, is keeping the interior of the new terminal a closely guarded secret. Known so far is that the terminal will have 23 check-in desks, 6 air bridges and 15 passport control counters. The new terminal also features a large statue of Alexander the Great and several duty free stores and restaurants including the first Burger King fast food restaurant in Macedonia. Skopje’s city transportation company will operate two double-decker busses from the city centre to the airport on the opening day so those interested can see the final product of the 110 million Euro investment.
Meanwhile, Mat Airways, the only passenger airline which calls Skopje its home has once again ceased operations, a second time it has done so this summer. It is unknown when and if the airline will resume flights. The Macedonian Civil Aviation Agency is talks with several airlines in hope that one will base an aircraft in Skopje from the 2011/12 winter season. One of them is a national airline from the former Yugoslavia which operates flights to Skopje.
Great news for Skopje (even though we read about this just a couple of days ago)...
ReplyDeleteIs the statue of Alexander the Great really necessary?! I just fear that it might look tacky in such a nice airport.
When are you going to post the statistics for Pristina?
hihihi, i must fly there :)))
ReplyDeleteSkopje Airport from scratch turned out to be the biggest and most expensive investment among all the Balkans. You got to give them credit for this.
ReplyDeleteYou mean when talking about aviation investment, not investment in general.
ReplyDelete@first anonymous
ReplyDeletethe statue is surely crap, and was donated by the TAV-boss himself, so blame him for that ;-)
I congratulate Skopje for this new terminal. Their government is really having visions and is driving it's plans ahead. Unfortunately they have entered the mouse trap called "turkish help" and do not realise that they are part of Erdogans new ottoman business empire. History always repeats itself.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if it requires such capacity.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWhich new companies could skopje airport attract this year and the next year?
ReplyDeleteWhich Ex-YU airlines fly to Skopje? and frequencies, load factors ... anyone ???
ReplyDeleteI did not understand this "trap of Turkish help". How come a construction project can be associated with some Ottoman whatever?
ReplyDeleteTo all those people that question either the size of the new terminal of its interior design choices (statues and the rest), SKP airport is now a private enterprise and therefore the owner and operator makes their own independent decisions that lead to financial profits or losses. If they think it's good for their business to expand the terminal further they will not consult anyone. The same principle applies to its interior. If they think having a statue of, say, Steve Irwin (or dare I say Mustafa Kemal Atatürk) will be beneficial for the business they will do it. Get over it.
ReplyDeleteSecond, the following statement is false: "including the first Burger King fast food restaurant in Macedonia." I personally had a whopper in central Shkup in 1999.
Finally, it's clear that SKP airport is trying to attract Adria Airways.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteYou can discuss history and national heritage on other websites.
ReplyDeleteIf Adria would open a base in Skopje, which routes would it choose to commence?
ReplyDeleteMaybe Frankfurt,Zurich,Paris,etc.
What do u think???
@visitKosovo
ReplyDeletethe whopper you had in Skopje was certainly not a burger king one
@last anonymous adria routes
ReplyDeleteZurich, Düsseldorf , München, maybe Rome
@VisitKosovo
ReplyDeleteI think you had KingBurger sort of whooper, not Burker King definitely :).
Looking forward to their onion rings...
My bad. I stand corrected. I must have had "King Burger", see Google Maps, yoolk and foursquare.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Adria, I think they would be looking at providing a feeder service to Star Alliance hubs, hence in addition to Ljubljana perhaps Munich, Vienna, Zurich and I would think maybe a desination in Italy, such as Milan or Rome because of a significant Macedonian community over there. Just guessing, clearly.
@ visit Kosovo
ReplyDeleteI think Adria has too many problems at the moment to commence anything serious from Skopje.
Turkish Airlines would probably be the one who start anything out of skopje...
I think Stockholm or Copenhagen is really needed too.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have any idea how many people from Kosovo use SKP, and how many people from Macedonia use PRN? Considering they are so close, how strong is the competition between the two airports?
ReplyDeleteI dont think TK will base an aircraft in Skopje.It would rather make Skopje as a feeder for Istanbul.TK will have 3 daily flights and thats it.
ReplyDeleteIf TK serves with 3 daily flights, it is big. TK serves much bigger cities with <=3 flights a day. i.e Wien,Rome, Cairo. Interesting to see it.
ReplyDelete