Skopje Airport’s dream run continues
With less than twenty days to go until the end of 2013, Skopje Alexander the Great Airport is closing in on its millionth passenger and best result since 2000. In November, Macedonia’s busiest airport handled 71.582 passengers, an increase of 14.8% compared to the same month last year. Macedonia’s other airport, Ohrid, welcomed 966 passengers during the month. So far this year, Skopje has seen 925.972 pass through its doors, an impressive increase of 21.2%. Together, Macedonia’s two international airports have handled 1.003.168 passengers over the past eleven months, climbing 19% on last year. Driving the growth is primarily Wizz Air which launched new flights to Stockholm and Gothenburg from the Macedonian capital this summer and is planning another expansion next year.
Skopje Airport is on track to record its busiest year on record and best since 2000 when it welcomed just over 1.020.000 passengers. Next year the airport is also expected to see numbers grow as Wizz Air will base a second Airbus A320 in the Macedonian capital and launch flights to Charleroi, Beauvais and Hahn. In addition, starting next summer, Wizz Air will boost frequencies to Basel Mulhouse, Dortmund, Eindhoven, Gothenburg, Malmo and Memmingen thanks to the new jet. The arrival of the second aircraft will bring Wizz Air’s total fleet investment in Skopje to over 160 million dollars. By the end of this year, the low cost airline is also tipped to announce possible flights out of Ohrid.
In a few days, Germania will launch flights from Berlin to Skopje to complement its existing Dusseldorf service, which is further expected to boost numbers in December. 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. Despite the growth, Skopje is expected to remain the seventh busiest airport in the former Yugoslavia.
Good job Skopje, keep up the good work in the future!
ReplyDeleteWhich airports are number 6 and 8?
ReplyDelete6 Ljubljana
ReplyDeleteThank you. Shame that Ljubljana has slipped so much after being one of the busiest airports in this region.
DeleteIs it likely that Skopje could take it over? How many passengers did LJU handle so far?
This year sure not but next will be quite possible. Of course LJU shrinks- JP cut so many new routes, almost no attractive strategy for new airlines and also 50 seaters commuting mostly.
DeleteAny public transport (bus) -no taxi- from Skopje airport to downtown? Company? Price?
ReplyDeleteThank you.
http://skp.airports.com.mk/BusTransportPopUp.aspx?l=2&t=1
DeleteOne-way ticket price: 150 denars
I want to give you a few slaps.
DeleteThere is Bus transport to and from Skopje airport. It costs 200 denars one way and you can find the details on the following link.
ReplyDeletehttp://skp.airports.com.mk/default.aspx?ItemID=491
There is also shuttle bus to Pristina
http://skp.airports.com.mk/default.aspx?ItemID=554
Which are the busiest ex-yu ariports?
ReplyDeleteFirst is Belgrade, than Zagreb, Pristina and Split?
After ... ?
Ljubljana, Dubrovnik and Skopje.....
Delete1. Belgrade, 2. Zagreb, 3/4 Split/Pristina, 5. Dubrovnik, 6, Ljubljana, 7. Skopje, 8. Tivat, 9. Sarajevo, 10. Podgorica (they might be number 9. Not sure how they are going this year)
DeleteWith expansion at Split airport and even more charter flights coming in next year, it really makes me wonder if the gap between them and Zagreb could be further reduced- especially if Zagreb keeps on stagnating.
DeleteThere is a shuttle bus service (very good). It costs 150 denars (2.50€). I tried to copy the link but i couldn't from my IPhone. Look for the schedule at the web of Skopje Airport under getting here section.
ReplyDeleteThe results are amazing and especially the fact that almost all airlines out of SKP have a LF of 80% 90%. I really hope it gets some One World or SkyTeam airline.
I assume a pax. increase of 20% next year too.
oneworld or SkyTeam at SKP would be great. It will boost passenger numbers even more and push prices down, especially those of Star Alliance.
DeleteDoubt it will happen. The market is rather limited in size and Star Alliance has flooded it. Unfortunately the SKP market is not that premium or high-yielding for legacy carriers to fight for it. Even Swiss doesn't fly its mainline there but it's mostly Edelweiss.
DeleteOT
ReplyDeleteAn Abu Dhabi Amiri Flight, A320 from Podgorica to Belgrade, is currently landing at BEG. Anyone knows more about that?
Also, Dubai Air Wing B737-800, just took off from Zagreb. Was there some Dubai official visiting zagreb?
DeleteSheikh of Abu Dhabi visited Podgorica and is coming to Belgrade now
DeleteDoesn't the Sheikh fly on his B777 or B747? At least he did when he flew into Belgrade the last few times.
DeleteA lot of police presence downtown Belgrade - two to three traffic policemen (and some policewomen) on every major intersection, especially in Kneza Miloša.
DeleteOT
ReplyDeleteHas the Avro RJ85 become the default aircraft used by Air France on its flights to Zagreb? I keep on seeing it being deployed for surely a month now. On top of everything, Croatia Airlines doesn't even fly daily to Paris.
It's kind of surprising that Ljubljana, which is much smaller, can sustain almost the same number of frequencies as Zagreb.
Why is that? Both countries are shaken by the crisis and they are both EU members.
Three years ago I flew on Air France from Zagreb to Paris in Spring, and back, price was very decent (around 180eur) and didn't buy it much in advance (one-two weeks), flight was quite filled and it was CRJ 700 so I don't know if that is big change in capacity.
DeleteBUT on CDG it was a disaster - we were parked god knows where, I think it took some 20-30 minutes just to get to the terminal by bus, there was some work/expansion on the airport, but it was too much. I was really shocked and disappointed by the treatment Zagreb had as a destination.
I know that when I talked to some friends from Zagreb they couldn't believe how cheap was the price and that they wouldn't think to fly from Zagreb but would try to find cheaper alternatives. Maybe that is one of the reasons?
Yeah, the CRJ is smaller so the Avro represents an upgauge.
DeleteRegarding, Zagreb, so where are they flying from? I am still surprised by the lack of frequencies when compared to Ljubljana. Do people from Zagreb fly from there? That's the only reason I could think of. I think Budapest and Belgrade are a bit too far for them to use their flights.
it's A5. they have taken ZAG last year as a result of AF's cost cutting measures. same goes for LJU. but the plane (AR8) belongs to WX. as for size comparison, AR8 can be both upgrade and downgrade from CRJ or E-Jet, because it depends which CRJ or E-Jet was used. WX's AR8 has capacity of 95, while A5's CR7 and E70 have 72-76 and CR9 and E90 have 100
DeleteIt was a crj 700, so this is an upgauge.
DeleteHow are montenegrin airports doing?
ReplyDeleteOT: is there a chance that Air Serbia doesn't fly to Beirut or Cairo?
ReplyDeleteWell of course there is.. nothing is sure before we see flights loaded into the system.
DeleteWhat do you think when summer timetable will be published? I believe its last moment for it
I heared Cairo is still questionable.
They'll fly to Beirut. Why should there be a chance that they don't?! CAiro is another story, the country is in a huge political turmoil, EgyptAir is sending the Embraer even to places like Vienna.
DeleteTough question. Today is the end of their 4th consecutive promotional period. . Their facebook page is too messy with those promotional posters. Their facebook fans/followers need to get some rest of non-stop bombing with same old phrases and photos.
DeleteAnd I think it won't be before 20th january, I think they will wait untill the most of the celebrations (slavas, christmas, Julian calendar New Year) are over, especially because they attrackt mostly diaspora lines such are Dusseldorf, Zurich, Berlin, Frankfurt, Wiena, Stokholm, Paris etc. And then when the daylight starts lasting longer, then they could start promoting destinations like Budapest, Warsaw, Kiev, Sofia.
And then, after some time destinations like Varna, and Kairo and Beirut (if we get those in the first place). I would not personally choose to promote Kairo while cleaning snow from my window at the same time. That's my view on marketing :)
And yes, just to add, their problem is constatly spamming about their flights, having those "surprise, we award you with a brand new poster for your desktop" kind of posts etc. Almost no posts in English as well. They must not mess these summmer lines up, it has to be properly timed, since they made mistakes in the past..
DeleteOT:
ReplyDeleteInteresting, today, as answer to new JU connection JP offered return fares LJU-BEG and BEG-LJU for 114€. Actually, on some online travel sites you can buy return ticket with JP or JU for 79€ (9066 RSD)!
... by using Diners card, for which they charge 0 commission.
DeleteWhat kind of answer it is? JU promo Friday is 81€ they are more then 30% more expensive and I do not expect that their whole flight is 114€.
DeleteTodays QR flight to Belgrade is neither cancelled but disappeared from the list and obviously the flight did not happen.
ReplyDeleteWhat is up with it?
Also why got TKs morning flight cancelled?
Cause TK sucks. They believed they could fill 3 daily flights to Belgrade which obviously isn't the case.
DeleteQR came and left without problem.
DeleteQatar departed but never landed according their website.
DeleteGhost flight.
Obviously Beg.aero sucks!!!
TK canceled more than 80 flights today. They have big snow storm.
Delete^ Well,thats a response!
DeleteNow we really know the reason for the cancellation.
Thank you buddy!
A6-SAB je ispao iz flote Er Srbije danas....lete sa samo 3 A319.
ReplyDeleteJel to nedostatak pilota ili sta???
Како мислиш испао? Не саобраћа данас или је трајно повучен из флоте? Можда је у питању квар?
DeleteHocu da kazem da danas nije saobracao i da su samo tri a319 u funkciji.
DeleteOk,ne znam sta se desava sa ovim avionom ,mozda sutra sve bude u redu.
A6-SAB leti za Cirih http://www.flightradar24.com/JAT374
DeleteI am so happy about the impressive run skopje airport has... and i am excited about the new routes which could be launched by wizz air in OHD... but skopje still needs a direct link to moscow, barcelona/madrid and probably warsaw because only LCC wont be good for an airport we need some national carriers... hopefully the to investors who are interseted in etablishing a new macedonian airline but are not named are still intersted in the macedonian market
ReplyDeleteI do not see any logic behind Skopje-Warsaw. If Croatia Airlines does not fly it then I do not see a reason why any airline would do it from Skopje.
DeleteDarwin Arline ZAG-FCO from 30.3.2014 four times per week
ReplyDeleteYes, we know. It was announced yesterday, that is the times.
DeleteSkopje airport is nice.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the new terminal in Belgrade will be at least as nice looking and functional .
Off topic
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know if/when AirBerlin codeshare flights will be included for award booking via AAdvantage ?
forgot to add, AirBerlin flights to BEG
ReplyDeleteAir Berlin does not fly to Belgrade...
ReplyDeleteDon't they codeshare with JU ?
ReplyDelete