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.
How many passengers is Pristina expecting for November and December? Split will see approx 1 590 000 for 2013. Will this be enough to take third position?
ReplyDeleteWell, if they welcomed 124,000 passengers during October then I am sure they will overpass Split by the end of the year. At this point they are only 150.000 passengers behind.
DeleteSo 2013 looks like this in terms of airport traffic, over 100 000 pax
DeleteBelgrade - 3.45 million
Zagreb -- 2.35 million
Pristina - 1.64 million
Split - 1.585 million
Dubrovnik - 1.54 million
Ljubljana - 1.28 million?
Skopje - 1.01 million
Sarajevo - 660 000
Zadar - 485 000
Pula - 400 000?
Rijeka - 124 000
I think your Belgrade airport numbers are wrong. If Belgrade sees 0% growths in the last two months of 2013 then the passenger number will be 3,468,000. I think 3,500,000 is a more realistic number.
DeleteSKP will be around 1,100,000. I have a feeling that next year it will overtake LJU!
DeleteVery good for both airports. People get surprised every time when I tell them how much passengers Pristina handles.
ReplyDeleteA question regarding Skopje-Belgrade route. Will Air Serbia replace the Atr with the A320 in summer or will it first introduce the A319?
ReplyDeleteThanks in advance.
Dear God, enough with Air Serbia questions!
DeleteFro firs from 1st decembre make transfer from ATR to 737-300 and them later after holiday go to 319 and from 1st april start whit 2 dayli flight (day with 320 and night with 319)
DeleteIt's a question on Skopje.
DeleteIf you have a problem with Air Serbia or Skopje you are more than welcome to just ignore the questions/comments especially this kind which is NOT off topic.
Great, thanks a lot for your constructive reply.
DeleteDo all airlines use airbridges in Skopje? How does Wizz Air load their passengers?
ReplyDeleteYES All airlines, only small aircraft (ATR, CR9, CR2, CR7, Fokker70, DH4, DH8)
Delete*Only small airlines NOT use.... Sorry I had to correct :)
DeleteEven Wizz Air uses them? That would make SKP one of the few airports where they do it. Unless they gave them a dirt cheap price for it- which could be the case.
DeleteYes of course, wizzair uses them - but I don't now for the price....
ReplyDeleteInteresting. In Belgrade you board through stairs. I guess that's because there is more competition and they need to save as much as possible.
DeleteHey Ex-Yu: one of your SKP numbers is wrong: October plus is 37,8%
ReplyDeleteOCT 2012 64504pax
OCT 2013 88922pax
do your math again ;)
Yes Ex-yu you've made a small misscalculation:-)) It's an impressive growth of 37%.
ReplyDeleteBtw. W6 will soon start operating from OHD. All flights will be year round. They will make it public at end of december.
Oh wow! Is it one destination they are introducing or more? And could you disclose the destination? ;)
Deletestill continue negotiations between Ohrid municipality & Ministry for transport & TAV Macedonia and WizzAir, Adria, Air Serbia and some other airline company and before holiday we gonna know which routes gonna be on the table.. This is now ehat we now.
DeleteBut pressure анд wishes is for : Italia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany and Swiss...
Delete*and
DeleteProbably there will be BSL, TSF and DTM. EIN would be also great cause of Dutch tourists. But I don't see the point for paying subsidisies to JP and JU just for flying to BEG and LJU and transferring again.
DeleteWhy not? Both JU and JP are far more valuable than W6 because they have a much wider network and can actually open up Ohrid and its region much more than Wizz Air's flight to tertiary European airports.
DeleteWell not really true. Neither JP nor JU are really known airlines in Europe. Instead W6 is quite popular especially among young Europeans travelling to Eastern Europe. Ohrid won't get tourists from Abu Dhabi, Beirut or Cairo but instead tourists from Western Europe expect direct and affordable flights.
Deletesorry for OT, but it seems that Air Serbia cancelled both its today departure and tommorows departure for Abu Dhabi! What are the loads on that route, or is it technical issues?
ReplyDeleteJU 800
DeleteABU DHABI 17:10 18:00 C2 Airbus A319 Одлетео у 18:10
Yep, there was a slight technical problem from what i know..
Deletesorry for this OT: Adria will scrap two CRJ200 S5-AAD and S5-AAE because of this will recive two new (ex. Air One) CRJ900ER.
ReplyDeleteThat's really good news. So that means that they will operate a total of 6 aircraft of the kind? When are they due to arrive?
Delete