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| Skopje Airport anticipates another record year |
Following a strong start to the year, Skopje Alexander the Great Airport anticipates having its busiest summer season on record, with airlines to launch several new routes, add additional capacity and boost frequencies to the city. Wizz Air will headline the growth for a second consecutive year, with the budget carrier set to base a third aircraft in the Macedonian capital in late June and introduce five new routes, including Friedrischshafen, Sandefjord, Barcelona, Lubeck and Nuremberg. Furthermore, the no frills airline will boost frequencies across its network out of Skopje. It will introduce an additional weekly flight to Hahn, Cologne, Bergamo, Gothenburg and Beauvais, and a further two weekly services will be added to Malmo, which will now operate on a daily basis.
On Thursday, Turkey’s TAV Airports Holding marked the fifth anniversary of its takeover of Macedonia’s two international airports. Since then, Skopje and Ohrid have seen their passenger numbers grow by a combined total of 75%, with the introduction of seventeen new routes. "Skopje is currently linked with 26 European destinations and one to Dubai, which is a significant increase compared to 2010, when the capital had direct flights to only ten cities", Zoran Krstevski, the CEO of TAV Macedonia, said. He added, “2015 will see the introduction of a dozen new routes, which will result in further traffic and passenger growth this year”.
Apart from Wizz Air, several other airlines will launch flights to the city this summer. Swiss International Air Lines will inaugurate two weekly services from Geneva, while Croatia Airlines will add seasonal summer flights from Split, starting June 24. The one weekly service will operate through to September 15. According to Mr. Krstevski, TAV Macedonia plans to promote Skopje Airport as a regional hub this year and focus on attracting transit passengers. Furthermore, the airport’s management believes Skopje will handle over 1.5 million travellers in 2015, up from a record 1.2 million last year. In January, Alexander the Great Airport welcomed 88.275 passengers, overtaking its traditionally busier counterpart - Ljubljana Airport - in the process. The figure represents growth of 41.6% compared to the same month last year.
So next one to take over will be Dubrovnik, no?
ReplyDeleteHaha, not gonna happen ;-)
DeleteLJU is still sleeping princess. SKP needed a year or two after it was sold to show this excellent results which I admire. Let's see how LJU will progress within next years. I think that this is going to be a very interesting story.
ReplyDeleteLJU has two main problems:
Delete1. It will always remain in the shadow of Zagreb.
2. Adria
The second point can be overcome by attracting a great deal of lowcost carriers. LJU can easily be used by the ZAG market.
I do not think that LJU is in the shadow of ZAG. It has far more better catchment area. Per capita metrics shows better figures even now.
DeleteYet passenger numbers show otherwise. Ljubljana's time has come to past now.
DeleteIf you think so. Why would Fraport bought it. Do not think that it did just from mercy. I am sure that they will going into strong battle with ZAG. LJU has much more to offer in strategic sense than ZAG which will remain an airport that serves its town and east part of Slovenia.
DeleteHow is less than 100km distance "more strategic"?
DeleteIndeed, Fraport did not buy LJU because they r nice people, but because they need a cargo airport in this part of the woods.
Exactly, cargo will be centred around Ljubljana while passengers will be routed via Zagreb.
DeleteAlso, the new terminal will allow Zagreb to grow to become a leader in its own region!
New terminal means nothing. I don't believe that Fraport would just leave passengers to ZAG. Be serious. It will be nice to watch german vs french competitors struggling for every cent. It is little more than a half of the year when Fraport made an acquisition.
DeleteLook at Skopje and how things changes when they opened it! Same story will be for Zagreb. I don't see how LJU can compete then. Their time has passed, it's time for Zagreb now.
DeleteThe French started almost immediately by announcing new routs. Still waiting for Fraport announcements.
DeleteHahahaha yes, LJU is a threat to ZAG with its army of CRJ monster aircraft. lol
Deletewhy is "in the woods" a cargo airport needed?
DeleteLOL, this is really funny, no one needs cargo airport literally in the forest!
Delete"in the woods" comment was probably meant to say "Fraport needs a cargo airport in this NECK of the woods" which is a standard idiom describing neighborhood or an area.
In other words, meaning of that sentence is that Fraport needs cargo ops in the LJU area. Better?
I'm not an idiot.. ;) but WHY?
DeleteEvery idiot knows why, German guys want to make LJU into a cargo hub. They think LJU is the right place. Who would have thought Memphis is a right place for a cargo mega hub, right?
DeleteFDX is in CDG, UPS in CGN, DHL in LEJ,
DeleteGEC/DLH in FRA. So which player you would base in LJU?
Zato ce im trebati produzena pista a i dosad se nije LJU fokusirala samo na Cargo a tesko da ce imati sanse da se izbori sa VIE.
DeleteINN-NS
Fraport said they would develop both passanger and cargo traffic.
DeleteCongratulations Skopje! So many new routes is impressive for any airport.
ReplyDeleteI basically agree.
DeleteBut note this was only made possible by a very strong financial support of the government to Wizz.
So this year it will be a race between Skopje and Ljubljana. Does anyone know how much LJU estimates it will handle this year?
ReplyDeleteTo compare some airports with ex YU nbrs
ReplyDelete1'756'459 Dresden
1'819'485 Salzburg
3'257'348 Nuremberg
897'421 Graz
991'356 Innsbruck
561'295 Linz
224'846 Klagenfurt
These were 2014 loads
@JU520 BEGLAXMarch 1, 2015 at 11:08 AM
DeleteThese are good numbers for what these local airports are, especially Nuremberg, not far from Munich and Frankfurt, two massive airport hubs.
Germany will soon have 3 airport hubs, in Europe only London and Paris have two airport hubs each, Germany will top that with 3rd in Berlin once it opens it'll have capacity of around 40 mill, which is expected to hit fast, with in 10 years of opening.
OT,
Zagreb numbers aren't out yet but they're up on last year by 12.5% for February official numbers should be out on Tuesday.
What's great is that Ohrid will be getting flights this year as well. Are the Basel - Ohrid flights seasonal or year-round?
ReplyDeleteyear round
DeleteSkopje will also see new flights from Zurich by Germania, and Jetairfly will bring back the direct Brussels - Skopje route
ReplyDeleteDo we have the January numbers for PRN ??
ReplyDeletelooks like an interesting race between PRN, LJU & SKP
To je odlicno za unutar Evropske letove ali za Makedonce koji lete iz USA to nevalja bas.
ReplyDeleteINN-NS
ADRIA AIRWAYS UNOFFICIAL STATISTICS for FEBRUARY 2015
ReplyDelete1230 flights 1% more than last last february (same number of scheduled and 6% more charter)
60500 passenger 4% more than last february (2% more scheduled and 19% more charter)
48,1 scheduled passangers per scheduled flight while 60,6 charter passangers per charter flight (2% more on scheduled and 12% more on charter flights)
First two month of 2015 Adria has 1% less flights and 5% more passangers.
OT: Is this online check in for Air Serbia? http://www.airserbia.com/en-rs/flight-status
ReplyDeleteSource: http://www.bud.hu/english/passengers/before_flight/online_check-in?_offeredit_pheight=fmoqqmtehmfhm&prk=57395460