New terminal for new achievements
Today, a new chapter in the history of Skopje Alexander the Great Airport began as it opened the doors to its brand new terminal. The multi million Euro project took just over a year to complete and will allow Macedonia’s capital to have the most modern airport facilities in the former Yugoslavia. The new terminal at Skopje Airport is ten times the size of the current terminal building, which was built in 1987 and will be closed as of tomorrow. The new terminal stretches over two levels and 40.100 square metres. Besides the new terminal the runway has been lengthened in order to accommodate larger aircraft. Furthermore, millions have been invested into supporting infrastructure such as access roads, a car park and an administrative office building.The development of the new terminal was made possible by the Turkish airport operator, TAV Holdings, which took over the management of both Skopje and Ohrid airports from the government in early 2010. As a result, the opening ceremony of the new terminal was attended by Turkish government officials and businessmen.
Macedonia’s Prime Minister said that the new terminal was one of the biggest and most complex investments in the country. Thousands of people turned out to see the opening of the new terminal. Special busses were organised from the city centre so the public could get a glimpse of the new facilities and look around.TAV will now begin work in other fields to improve the airport’s offering. The company will soon begin the construction of a new web page for both Skopje and Ohrid airports and will work with the Skopje public transport company for it to have a bus line from the airport to the city. The operator is also working hard on finding an established airline to base an aircraft in Skopje, which would lead to an increase in passenger numbers. In the first half of the year, Skopje saw a passenger increase of 8%.
A total of 110 million Euros has been invested into the new terminal which features air bridges, several duty free shops, a food court, 23 check in desks, over a dozen passport control counters and has the capacity to handle 4 million passengers per year.
Comments
That is why there should be a lowcost terminal to offer an alternative!
Great day for Macedonia can't wait to go and see it today!
On top of that, the old one is barely equipped to handle 180/189 seater A320s/B738s, what with effectively one operational gate and a tiny pre-boarding area.
As we say - first jump, than say 'op' ;)
Otherwise, congrats on the new terminal. Landing in SKP is finally going to be a pleasant experience, and I hope the bus connection to the city is finally opened.
Hoping to see a Wizz Air A320 based there soon.
http://www.zdravo.com.mk/se-e-spremno-za-otvoraneto-na-noviot-skopski-aerodrom-foto/
However, and not to sound vicious...I am still battling to understand the logic of this heavy investment. It's the investor's business - ok, but from the perspective of the market elements (population, tourists, transit pax) I am having a hard time seeing the aggresive growth to up to few millions pax. Maybe in 10 yrs...I wonder what's the break even point of pax volume for the investment to start paying off, the period of return, NPV (net present value) etc.
Skopje's 8% won't bring it even over 800.000 pax in 2011 and plus other airports in ex Yu that are much larger grow at double digits.
Passenger hub for transit pax ? Which pax ? Pristina has ambitious plans, so does Belgrade, Zagreb as well.
Transit pax from east and south Europe/North Africa rely on already established hubs in the area (sofia, Bucharest, Istambul).
I barely see a chance to Belgrade and Zagreb to compete with big airports. What market share would be within reach for Skopje ?
I'd like someone to write a few good arguments/hypothesis and help me understand the logic. Again this is not to undermine, humiliate or dismiss the project. I simply don't get it.
thnx.
referring to last anonymous:
1 mio pax per year, means 500000 departing each year or 1370 each day. Let s say you choose 70 pax per flight, this would mean apx 20 departures per day. From 0600h until 2200h this means 1,25 departures per hour. Of course there is peak times where u need 4-5 airbridges at the time and than there is hours where you wont need 1...
it s for sure an optimistic project.. but let s wait and see how it all develops
http://www.vest.com.mk/?ItemID=E47CD4FD9C3C9842B6D6DDFF964F7AF5
Apparently the market isn't there. Otherwise MAT would have survived and would have been more flights to Europe. Was the supposedly insufficient infrastructure what impeded growth, or the lack of a market really?
Urime Shkup!
Btw the Skopje airport looks amazing, love the 6 jet bridges.
Can an airport grow without increasing its size?''
An airport like Skopje which has around 700-800k pax/yearly can not grow till 6 million pax (which is the capacity of this new airport) frankly said never. To build an airport for 2-2.5 mill pax was enough and it would be cheaper to maintain the airport. Right now you have a huge 6 million pax terminal which will be empty most of the time. Just nice to look at, never mind that hardly 13% of the terminal is gonna be used and the rest will stand there for decoration.
Congratz Skopje.