Skopje Airport closes in on one million passengers

Skopje Alexander the Great Airport has continued to post exceptional passenger growth this year with numbers surging in October. Macedonia’s busiest airport welcomed 88.731 passengers through its doors last month, an increase of 25.8% compared to October 2012. In the first ten months of the year, the airport handled 854.390 passengers, up from last year’s 701.789, or an increase of 37.5%. The number of flight operations to and from Skopje also increased, by 9%. Alexander the Great Airport is close to surpassing the one million passenger mark. The airport will need to handle an additional 18.568 passengers to last year’s results in November and December in order to do so. The only time the airport handled over one million travellers was in 2000 when it saw 1.000.200 passengers pass through its doors.

Macedonia’s second international airport, Ohrid, also saw solid numbers in October with 2.894 passengers handled. Combined, the two airports welcomed 91.625 passengers during the month, up 34%. Wizz Air remains the busiest airline operating out of Macedonia, followed by Turkish Airlines and Austrian. On the other hand, Istanbul remains the most popular destination from Skopje, followed by Vienna and Zurich. Turkish Airlines’ 289 seat Airbus A330-300 has become a common sight in the Macedonian capital with the airline often deploying the aircraft on the route. This winter, Skopje will welcome a new airline as Germania launches scheduled two weekly flights from Berlin.

Meanwhile, Pristina Airport recorded more modest growth last month. The airport, which opened its new terminal several weeks ago, welcomed 124.943 passengers, an increase of 4.1% compared to the same month last year. So far in 2013, the airport has handled 1.440.632 travellers. During the week, the airport named its new CEO. Haldun Firat Koktur will take over the managerial position at the airport, replacing Mertol Genc. Mr. Koktur started his career as an engineer during the construction of Zonguldak Airport in northern Turkey. He was also project manager during the construction of Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen Airport’s new terminal.