NEWS FLASH
Qatar Airways has scheduled its flights between Doha and Skopje, almost a year after announcing the new route. Flights between the two capital cities are to commence on July 17 and operate four times per week with an Airbus A320 aircraft. The service will depart Doha early in the morning, arriving in Skopje before midday, with its return journey to start an hour later. The Qatari carrier had previously delayed the launch of its Skopje service due to an ongoing fleet shortage. Despite setting the date, Qatar Airways has not put tickets on sale for the flights just yet. Meanwhile, services to Sarajevo are also set to begin this year, however, they are yet to be scheduled.
Unlike EK flight to Zagreb, there is no visa for UAE in EU and vise-versa, this route is a simple joke.
ReplyDeleteThe route is not joke , maybe 2 weekly is ok , but I agree 4 per week is too much. Anyway they had to announce it , and secure something from the market , that's the reason for BGD to be daily too , they got scared from EK .
ReplyDeleteIs it going to be a direct flight or they will pair it with another city in the region?
ReplyDeleteDirect flight. They first planned to fly 3 times per week. Now they increased to 4.
DeleteI think this might happen in the future. When the new airport will be build , FZ will end BGD and SKP , I think EK will go daily to BGD , SKP might get inked 2 per week via BGD on certain days .
DeleteThe biggest looser will be TK , they have to drop the prices with SQ much lover to compete for Australia.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like QR allocating some of its resources for ZAG to SKP. But if they want to compete with EK in ZAG, they definitely have to upgrade their product to 787.
ReplyDeleteI would expect QR to keep 320 and go double daily to additionally increase connectivity to more waves in DOH and have certain advantages that EK cannot provide as is one daily; in my opinion better way than having 1 daily 787/330 vs 1 daily 777 as difference in capacity is still significant. Plus market heavily over supplied, which also raises the question of challenge that EK will face during winter - daily 777 will be very, very hard to fill decently, even with very low fares as I don't see QR simply handing over their business, nor TK (TK will probably be less able to fight EK overall).
DeleteInitially linked with Sarajevo maybe??
ReplyDeleteOne stop via Doha to Australia. So easier now, hopefully the connection times in Doha are short.
ReplyDeleteCongrats SKP! This will give travellers to Asia, Australia and the Middle East a great advantage. Hopefully SKP sees another busy year ahead!
ReplyDeleteCongrats, Skopje, hope for flights to Sarajevo as well!
ReplyDeleteSo let's be real and not talk with some ideas like QR should fly with 787 to ZAG and etc. This is perfect for passengers, situation in ZAG with double daily QR and EK B773.
ReplyDeleteCongrats SKP for this, they will have one stopover to Australia, Asia and even Africa and they dont need to go from SKP via BEG to some other cities where QR flies directly.
The biggest winners last two days are passengers in whole region because ticket prices will go down and biggest loosers are EY and ASL because they had a lot of passengers traveling from AUH to BEG then to third cities but honestly I think this wont affect them as much as we think it would.
We gonna have great season this year! And every single passenger is already winner!
Greetings from BEG
Absolutely agree with all you wrote, this will be a great year for the passengers in Ex-Yu region in general!
DeleteInteresting. Most people here claimed how no one flies from Zagreb via Belgrade to third cities (nevermind the two daily flights) and now all of the sudden those same people claim how Air Serbia will be hurt the most because everyone was flying with them to Abu Dhabi. Lol.
DeleteMaybe those weren't the same people. Lol
Deleteyou forgot there is TK already, so its not like there isnt 1 stop connections to Asia and Africa from SKP
DeleteThat was the same person, you can tell by same spelling mistake: "biggest loosers". We know it's not from BEG but ZAG.
DeleteI would not normally consider flying out of SKP, however a one stop option to New Zealand is very compelling indeed. Pax numbers to such destinations are tiny though.
ReplyDeletewhy not?
DeleteBecause I'm 20 minutes drive from PRN and I value convenience. No other reason. QR offer now makes travel to destinations not offered with a single stop via IST, VIE, MUC or FRA very compelling indeed.
Deletefair enough, but there are sometimes incredibly good fares from SKP (on Wizz of course) just would justify the short hop to SKP
DeleteMaybe QR could now start LJU as a way of taking some of the Slovenian pax away from EK in ZAG. Just a thought ...
ReplyDeletedoes someone know when the tickets will go on sale?
ReplyDeleteQatar travel festival runs till Jan. 16th so if possible I would like to book my ticket from SKP
here's the link to the web page:
http://www.qatarairways.com/global/en/offers/travel-festival.page
Tried as well, but had to book my flight to Singapore via SOF, very competitive business class fare of 1000USD round trip!
DeleteGreat news for SKP, bad news for TK.
ReplyDeleteI am even surprised that TAV didn't manage to sabotage this route.
WTF
DeleteNot sure about sabotage part of the comment, but he's right. Turkish is the main carrier from SKP to Asia and all other destinations east of Itanbul and now they're getting some serious competition.
Deletethen they will loose the concession the next day
Deletedont forget that TAV lost IST (the new airport), TAV is not TK
Delete