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| Skopje Airport records busiest year in history |
Skopje Alexander the Great Airport has welcomed its millionth passenger for the first time in fourteen years and for only the second time in its history. Macedonia’s busiest airport saw its millionth passenger, Jana Ivanovska, arrive yesterday on a Wizz Air flight from Eindhoven. Ms. Ivanovska was awarded a weekend trip for two to Istanbul, with the passenger visibly surprised upon her arrival. Skopje Airport, which has recorded average growth of 21% so far in 2014, has already handled more passengers than it did for the whole of last year. In addition, the airport is set to see a 14% increase in travellers in October when compared to 2013. The substantial growth has been primarily driven by Wizz Air, which launched four new destinations this year, as well as Alitalia’s arrival to Skopje.
However, the achievement comes at a price. TAV Airports Holding, which runs Skopje Alexander the Great Airport, will pay the Macedonian government significantly less for its twenty year concession since it has handled over a million passengers this year. Under the agreement signed with the Macedonian government, TAV’s fees are reduced based on the airport’s performance. Once the airport handles over one million passengers, fees are reduced from 15% of gross income to 2% of the airport’s turnover. As a result, the Turkish operator will provide the government only between 350.000 to 700.000 euros this year compared to 2.7 million in previous years. TAV’s concession fee will no longer cover the subsidies the Macedonian government provides to low cost airlines, such as Wizz Air, to operate flights to Skopje.
Under the concession agreement with Turkey’s TAV, the company will manage both Skopje and Ohrid airports until 2030 and has already invested 120 million euros in the construction of a new terminal in Skopje and the overhaul of Ohrid Airport’s passenger terminal. The concession agreement also requires TAV to build a cargo terminal in Štip, which has been delayed until 2020. Nevertheless, it has been a very successful year for Skopje Airport, which was named the best in Europe handling under two million passengers by Airports Council International (ACI) earlier in 2014. Passenger numbers are expected to continue to grow next year as the government mulls the establishment of a national airline and maintains subsides for low cost airlines. TAV estimates Skopje will handle up to five million passengers in the coming years.
Below you can review the five busiest years at Skopje Airport. The former Yugoslavia will now have six airports to have handled over one million passengers in a single year.
| Year | PAX |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 1.000.000 + |
| 2000 | 1.000.200 |
| 2013 | 984.400 |
| 1999 | 970.000 |
| 2012 | 828.830 |
Comments
Anyway more importantly they gave some info on flights and cargo. So far this year number of flights are up 13% and cargo is up an impressive 40%! Also busiest day this year was August 4th with 5.793 pax while September 2nd had the most movements with 55.
People should be free to post about what they want, especially since a lot of people don't bother to check yesterday's comments. Show some respect and tolerance.
SKP has a CAT I. ILS but very high minimums for tetrrain (1300 m visibility and 500 feet cloud ceiling). Can't be much more improved either as a genius built a runway junction just south of the runway...
The current minima can be improved to real CAT I. (550 meter visibility) with procedure changes, it is being done (at least in words) for 4-5-6 months already but no results are seen yet.
-nadjite uporedljive aerodrome i uporedite rezultate 89 i 14.
Onda cete shvatiti da ovo cime se dicite je u stvari nista, cak ne prati ni prirodan progres ( 3%) A kamoli ozbiljan biznis.
BEG nije smeo biti idpod 15-20 mil
DBK I SPL 10 - tak
ZAG malo ispod itd
a vi slavite milionce ( i to pod okupatorskom upravom ) i uz silne finasijske subvencije.
pictures from the airport yesterday
Anybody knows if there was at least some upfront payment from TAV for this concession?
Skopje has an impressive growth this year, but Ljubljana is expected to handle 1.55 million pax nest year, Skopje would need to grow 40% (if this year's predicted traffic of 1.15 million can be achieved).
Ljubljana is expected to handle at least 1.5 million next year, and could be a lot more, 1.55 million very likely and in 2016 1,7 million. I don't see Skopje reaching these figures before 2017. 1.5 million in 2016 and 1.7 million in 2017, this is if they can attract a lot more airlines and get their national airline off the ground.
Ljubljana airport is expected to handle around 2.5 million pax in 2020 not sure Skopje would hit more than 2.0 million by 2020, it could, but I don't think they'll surpass Ljubljana Airport. They might surpass Pristina airport in 2015 if numbers continue
to tumble down.
Some airports can maintain rapid growth for 1 or even 2 years, this as airports are more integrated in to international travel networks, but after this short and brief expansion airports go back to normal growth rates of 5-6% growth. Ljubljana might have similar growth next year or year after cause of new airlines that are coming to Ljubljana but also new owners will try to push numbers up fast.
Its a natural progression of things. Its very cold here in Amsterdam.
Sorry to go off topic, just looked at stats for all major airports in Croatia, Split airport has surpassed 2013 record on 7th of October and is set to hit 1.73 million pax for 2014, a growth of around 9.25%.
Zagreb Airport is on target 8% growth for October and 2014 should end with 2.42 million pax, 5.25% growth on 2013.
Dubrovnik airport is also looking good 2014, it is expected to handle around 1.585 million, increase by around 4.15%.
Hadn't had a chance to check Zadar, Pula and Rijeka Airports yet.
Ljubljana Airport is also set to finish year on a good note with 2.45% growth. No idea why airport performed less than expected this year, if anyone knows can they enlighten me here, thanx.
Didn't check other airports, had no time.
INN-NS
For those interested in yesterdays topic, please join the discussion still going in in the comments section, thank you!
While admiring the approaching IR A300-600 into BEG, I noticed a 757 land. Any idea?
With or without subsidies-Air Serbia should open direct flights to Belgrade at least four times in summertime.
Their Atrs are perfect for routes of this kind.
No idea when is it leaving though.