Skopje and Ohrid airports stage record summer

Record breaking figures for Macedonia's two international airports

Macedonia's two international airports have continued to record strong growth this summer, with Skopje registering its busiest month since opening its doors to the public. The country's busiest airport handled 173.158 passengers last month, an impressive increase of 20.7% compared to August 2014. Fuelling the growth is Wizz Air, which now boasts 57 weekly departures to nineteen destinations from the Macedonian capital, after it based its third aircraft in the city in late June. So far this year, Skopje Alexander the Great Airport welcomed 946.310 travellers through its doors, up 16.7% on the same period in 2014.

Skopje Airport is now approaching the million passenger mark, a figure it achieved in late October 2014 for the first time in fourteen years and for only the second time in its history. “After the achievement of handling over one million passengers at Skopje Airport in 2014, which was a major milestone for us in less than five years since we started operating the airport, this year we have even higher expectations for the development of air traffic in Macedonia”, Zoran Krstevski, the General Manager of TAV Macedonia, says. In 2014, Skopje Airport added almost 224.000 passengers and recorded growth of in excess of 22%.

SKOPJE AIRPORT
MonthPAXChange (%)
JAN88.275 41.6
FEB80.079 22.8
MAR95.457 25.1
APR109.741 3.9
MAY117.099 7.4
JUN118.070 1.5
JUL164.431 24.4
AUG173.158 20.7

Skopje's local counterpart, Ohrid, has also seen impressive figures on the back of Wizz Air's seasonal summer service from London Luton and year-long flights from Basel, which were launched earlier this year. In August, St. Paul the Apostle Airport handled 25.061 passengers. During the first eight months, the figure stood at 72.715 travellers, a jump of 41.8%. Ohrid handles the bulk of its passengers during the summer months, with 70% of travellers who visit the city still using Skopje Airport instead. St. Paul the Apostle Airport is said to be negotiating new flights for the 2016 summer season. Besides Wizz Air, Ohrid is also served by Helvetic Airways from Zurich on a year-long basis and TUI Belgium from Brussels via Skopje during the summer months. This year, Corendon Airlines and Air Berlin operated charters to the lake-side city from Amsterdam and Vienna respectively.

EX-YU airport performance
January - August

AirportPAXChange (%)
Belgrade3.276.772 5.5
Zagreb1.722.342 6.7
Split1.474.265 10.7
Dubrovnik1.251.484 6.2
Pristina1.081.408 10.2
Ljubljana997.516 13.1
Skopje946.310 16.7
Tivat705.920 0.4
Sarajevo542.569 12.1
Podgorica402.734 * 5.8

* The figure for Podgorica Airport is for the January - July period

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:07

    Congratulations Macedonia. Really impressive. Who would have thought a few years ago. Also most ex-Yu airports doing well which is great.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous09:11

    Looking at the table SPU has posted exceptional numbers. I think they could hit 2 million next year. TIV is a bit disappointing. I was hoping they would handle 1 mill this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:17

      SPU will have 1,9-1,95 million this year, so there will be 2 million in 2016 for sure.
      The problem: the service quality is getting worse and worse.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:37

      For when is that new terminal planned to be completed for SPU?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:56

      Quality can't be much worse than the business class experience on today's BEG-LHR flight... operated by the archaic YU-ANI.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:06

      SPU sledece godine nema ultra festival, samim tim nema ni ovako dobrog jula sledece godine! Ultra im je donosila izmedju 50-100k ljudi svake godine...

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:22

      SPU sljedeće 2 godine sigurno ima ultra festival, informiraj se prije nego provaljuješ.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous15:01

      Ultre u Splitu nema sledece godine. Ultra ce biti u Milanu ove godine, to je potpisano jos u julu prosle godine

      Delete
    7. Anonymous15:44

      Još uvijek se provaljuješ umjesto da bar malo koristiš tražilicu i zdrav razum.

      Eto za početak baci pogled tu.

      http://ultraeurope.com/

      Delete
    8. Anonymous16:45

      I was flying out of SPU and it was Friday, it was a mess... it took around 40min from Split to SPU. I can only imagine how Saturdays look like -.-. Terminal expansion is much needed, ASAP!

      Delete
    9. OT: sta se tice Splita, opet su nesto zajebali kod CA, let je SPU-ATH trebao biti u 12.09.2015 u 18:30, a aviojon je debelo kasnio i poletio je prema ATH 13.09.2015 u 00:40. Kakva prava imamo putnici, ako ovako avijon debelo kasni, a vrijeme je OK, ostali avijoni su normalno sletjeli/poletjeli SPU?

      Delete
    10. Anonymous08:18

      250 EUR kompenzacije ako je avion stigao na odredište sa više od tri sata zakašnjenja (a jeste).

      Delete
  3. Anonymous11:52

    OT: Does anyone know why is there JU5415 flight from Timisoara to Belgrade, it is about to land right now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Diversion. It made 2 go arounds in BEG and than went to TSR...

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:48

      This morning it was foggy at BEG and the crew didn't have appropriate certificate for low visibility conditions. Charter flight to Antalya was late nearly 4 hours because of late arrival from TSR.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous12:33

    Any news about Ryanair comming to Skopje?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:29

      Read comment on yesterda's news

      Delete
  5. Anonymous13:05

    Ex-Yu, thanks on the info on the top-10 Airports in Ex-Yu.
    Could you please give us an update how the smaller airports are performing?
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous13:19

    Happy to hear this about SKP and OHD. Still hoping for them to see new routes to Russia, Poland and some other eastern european countries.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:20

      That would be great, but I don't believe it's going to happen (at least not in the foreseeable future) . I can not see which airline would open those lines, and in my opinion there is no demand. The only line which makes sense to me is from Moscow to Skopje throughout the year (once or twice weekly), and seasonal from Moscow to Ohrid (mainly because of "religious" tourism).

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:02

      I'm surprised there isn't at least a handful of charters to Ohrid during the summer months from Russia, yes their economy is suffering right now but you'd think there's a market for something small to begin with

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:17

      @anon 3:02
      Totally agreed. Especially that Russian citizens do not need visas for Macedonia.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous18:37

      +1

      I also think there is a high demand for Moscow - Skopje flights.. there have been rumors that the russian LLC Pobeda Airlines is considering launching Moscow - Skopje flights...

      Also some charter flights in the summer season from St. Petersburg and Moscow to Ohrid could proof succesful.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous14:55

    Have to say im surprised, i didnt see double digit growth for SKP this year after the big jump of the last couple years. Hell, to go from 600,000 in 2009 to over 1.4 million this year (if growth rate remains) is a great result! Good to see Ohrid doing well, would love to know wizz's load factors...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous18:58

    Bravooooo Skopje.....

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous19:01

    GO Skopje GO.....best looking airport in ex YU

    ReplyDelete
  10. Chartere iz Ohrida za Amsterdam pored Corendona leti i Arke. Ove dve kompanije tokom Jula i avgusta letele su po pet puta nedeljno svaka Sa 738.
    TUI za Brisel nedeljom je leteo preko Skoplja Sa 738 a utorkom non stop Sa E190

    ReplyDelete

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