LOT Polish Airlines will launch seasonal summer flights between Warsaw and Skopje this June, with the Macedonian capital becoming its eighth destination in the former Yugoslavia. The Star Alliance member will operate six weekly flights between the two cities, Mondays through Saturdays, with its 82-seat Embraer E175 jet. "Skopje in Macedonia is a completely new destination in LOT's network. This country is becoming more popular with tourists year after year. It can also be used as a base for trips to neighbouring countries such as Greece, Bulgaria and Albania", LOT's spokesman, Adrian Kubicki, said. Talks between the Polish carrier and the Macedonian government concerning the new service began back in August of last year.
Flights between Poland and Macedonia were established in 2017 when Small Planet Airlines launched charter operations from Katowice to Ohrid. They will resume this summer with services from Warsaw also expected. Apart from LOT, Skopje expects to see its passenger numbers continue to grow this year with Wizz Air to replace two out of four of its Airbus A320 aircraft with the larger A321s, as well as boost frequnecies on some routes. In addition, Greece's Aegean Airlines has confirmed it too will commence services to the Macedonian capital as soon as a political agreement is reached between the two countries, which is expected in the coming months. The Macedonian government has also held talks with Arkia Israeli Airlines over the potential introduction of flights between Tel Aviv and Skopje.
LOT has been steadily expanding its operations in the former Yugoslavia over the past few years, with the airline introducing seasonal services to Dubrovnik this summer. It also serves Belgrade, Ljubljana and Zagreb on a year-round basis, as well as Split, Podgorica, Pula and Zadar seasonally. Within the region, the Polish carrier has announced it will launch nonstop flights from Budapest to both New York and Chicago this May. Its CEO, Rafał Milczarski, noted that the airline would focus on the Baltic and the Balkan region, which could see similar expansion in the future. LOT has proven popular with passengers from the former Yugoslavia, particularly for transferring through Warsaw onwards to North America and Asia.
Tickets for the new Warsaw - Skopje service are available for purchase, while further flight details can be found here.
Comments
Greetings from Sofia!
Wit LOT and Aegean commencing flights (and Brussels in OHD) only SAS and TAP are missing now
Last year they started TGD and PUY.
The year before they launched ZAD and SPU.
Looking forward to see what they start in 2019.
http://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/01/lot-to-boost-zagreb-and-belgrade.html
1. Wizz is increasing frequencies, increasing capacity, and I do expect to announce new flights once the government will send fresh round of subsidies.
2. Croatia and Adria are increasing frequencies
3. LOT is starting from June, I expect Aegean to do the same in very near future
4. If Arkia announce SKP, I would assume they will start around June as well
5. Qatar wil be full year present in SKP. This is the only unknown for me, how Qatar is performing this route, does anyone have any input?
If all this come true, SKP should be well over 2 mil this year.
SOF have 18 weekly, but most of the passengers are transfers and not P2P
http://www.exyuaviation.com/p/brussels-airlines-brussels-ohrid.html
There is a reason why MA was closed but OU, JP, BT... weren't.
When you read the CEO'S statemnet they are clearly after polish tourists visiting the region
hah, every 10th tourist in Macedonia in August is from Poland ...
There has never ever been a SKP-VIE fare for less than 250 euro return.
Its become even more expensive now, with the "hang luggage only" fare, because previously it was 250 euros with 1 piece of luggage, now this price if for hand luggage only meaning with 1 piece of luggage you need to pay 300 euro in total. (2x25euro).
how OS manages to fill 2xdaily flights to SKP with these prices (majority of flights is with A320 btw) really escapes me.
With more competition, I do hope they come to their senses.
For this winter and long-haul (Asia) the best fares were/are with FZ/EK, then TK and QR came at the end.
Furthermore, there were I believe at least 2 QR travel festivals this fall/winter and SKP was not even once included. (whereas for example, SOF is regularly included)
Yeah, that's why it was actually Ryanair who got the boost to base 6 aircraft right away (from 0) and not Wizz.
On the Balkans there's nothing sweeter than a nicely cooked up conspiracy theory.
Now may one person tell me that JU was right in terminating WAW.
I hope Eurowings, if not LH will one day start to fly to Skopje...
Nobody could have imagined this just 5-6 years ago.