Skopje success for Wizz Air

Strong start for Wizz Air’s Skopje base

Only month after opening its base at Skopje Alexander the Great Airport, Wizz Air is recording strong passenger figures. The no frills carrier welcomed 15.565 passengers on its six newly launched routes from the Macedonian capital in the past thirty days. Malmo has proved to be the most popular destination with 2.802 passengers using the service. It is followed by Dortmund with 2.665 passengers, then Eindhoven (2.643), Basel (2.633), Memmingen (2.427) and Bergamo (2.395). Wizz Air entered the Macedonian market last year with flights from Luton and Treviso. In return for opening its base in Skopje, the airline has been granted five million euros in subsidies by the Macedonian government over the next three years.

Wizz Air plans to handle at least 120.000 passengers to and from Skopje by November 2013. In its second year of operations the number of passengers is projected to rise to 135.000 and a further increase of 20.000 passengers is expected to be seen by November 2015. As Wizz Air’s flights from Skopje are proving to be successful, a new expansion is tipped for the summer of 2013 with services to Brussels, Rome and Barcelona being considered.

Skopje Airport has seen its passenger numbers surge this year, however, experienced a significant decline in the month of October. November and December figures are set to soar thanks to Wizz Air’s new flights. This year Flydubai and Jetarifly were new arrivals into Skopje with the latter operating seasonal flights. On the other hand, the airport lost Malév Hungarian Airlines due to bankruptcy and ČZA Czech Airlines.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:05

    zagrab speed with the new terminal.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:19

    The airline has been granted five million euros in subsidies by the Macedonian government over the next three years?? Are Wizz like Ryanair?? You have to pay them for using the airport?? When PRN was out on tenderofferts by the state, TAV offered 120 millions in future investments and up to 1000 employees by 2 years. But ofcourse our corrupted goverment gives it to they who offer money to their pockets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:30

      Have you checked TAV's charges lately?
      If the govermnet made a mistake, it was with TAV, not with Wizz Air. Practically, the Macedonian government are paying TAV to do their own job.

      Delete
  3. Andreas12:12

    The pax numbers for DTM is slightly higher than for MMX. Some mix-up with the numbers?

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  4. Anonymous13:25

    Subsidizing a company, even a foreign one, is much more economically efficient than spending millions to salvage a loss - generating home carrier.

    Macedonian government would have spend a lot more in order to create a home national carrier.

    In my oppinion this is the better way in conteporary world when the big fish eat the small ones.

    Non of the Ex-Yu carriers can sompete with the European companies, not to talk about the Middle Eastern carriers.

    I am not a fan of Wizz Air but at least some of the disired destinations are now available for Macedonians.
    The whole economic cost of the country is lower compared to what Macedonia could have faced if the we'd tried to establish a new national carrier.


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    1. Anonymous13:43

      Croatia Airlines can compete!

      Delete
    2. pozdrav iz Rijeke14:10

      LOL!!! LOL!!! LOL!!!

      Dear friend, I agree completely that POTENTIAL of Croatia as a state, Croatian Airlines as its flag carrier, or any other croatian airline which is hopefully likely to appear, COULD compete with big European and Middle-eastern carriers, due to a number of factors - geography, politics, diaspora and tourism being some of those factors.

      Unfortunatelly, CTN/OU, as it is today, which means smallest-size airline with feeder role within an alliance, with low productivity level, with CEO becoming CEO for being PM's friend and with almost no development strategy, can compete only with the other similar ex-yu airlines.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous15:02

    Great succes for Macedonia and Wizz Air hope things will go on like this...
    Also I am hoping they will etablish the flights to Barcelona Brussel and instead of Rome they should introduce something more in the south like for example Antalya for Holidaymakers...
    A good Route would also be Skopje-Moscow, Skopje-Frankfurt and Skopje-Paris
    They surely will surpass the 1 Million Passengers in Skopje until October 2013

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  6. Anonymous17:29

    For me Wizz Air is an Ex Yu Airline!
    They have bases in Belgrade and Skopje now,
    and they are registered in Hungary as private company not as flag carrier.
    Where would we be today without them...
    yes,nowhere!
    Only thing i dont like is they get subsidies...
    they easily could get along without them.
    Subsidies are intended for unprofitable routes.
    But Skopje routes are obviously succesful.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous18:24

    Of course ther are succesful if you pay 5.000.000,00 EUR fot them. On that way price of ticket is not 300, but 100 EUR, so more passangers will have possibility to buy cheap ticket. It is not such a big deal to make succesful line that way. But someone has to pay diference in price. In this case, it is Macedonian Gouvernment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:28

      5 mil for 3 years equals 9 EUR per departing pax.

      It *is* a big deal, even though you suggest that surely anyone could've done it, including yourself. I'm happy finally somebody actually competent showed up to do business.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous22:19

    I can't believe people are calling a success the fact that Macedonian government has to pay 5 million Euros to a foreign company just so they use their Airports. SKP should learn from BEG, ZAG and PRN how things should be done and not give the tax-money of Macedonian citizens to foreign companies when the Country it itself is in desperate economical state.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:25

      Do your maths and come back. Wizz Air in Skopje has been a glowing success.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous05:58

    Learning from Belgrade?
    You mean Prishtina !!!

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    9. Anonymous11:40

      YOU KIDDING WE WERE HAVING A CONVO?????

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  10. Anonymous23:09

    BRAVOS!

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  11. Anonymous09:24

    Wow, what a bunch of haters. =(

    Congrats to both Macedonia and Wizz Air, they showed the way forward, succeeding where nobody else neither would nor could.

    Hindsight is 20/20, as per usual for know-it-alls.

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  12. Anonymous14:35

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