Macedonia's two commercial airports will see a significant increase in the number of flights and capacity on offer this summer following a record first quarter. During the January - March period, Skopje Airport welcomed 432.620 passengers, representing an increase of 22.6% on 2017. In March alone, the airport saw 156.952 travellers pass through its doors, up 25.4%. The General Manager of airport operator TAV Macedonia, Alper Ersoy, previously said, "We expect similar growth at Skopje Airport to that of last year. With its current network of 36 destination and the existing growth in demand for air travel, we anticipate welcoming our two millionth passenger during the fall of 2018".
| Month | PAX | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| JAN | 145.591 | ▲ 18.8 |
| FEB | 130.077 | ▲ 23.6 |
| MAR | 156.952 | ▲ 25.4 |
Several carriers will launch new services to the Macedonian capital and add capacity in the coming weeks. On May 30, Wizz Air will base its first 230-seat Airbus A321 aircraft in Skopje, with a second to follow on June 15. They will be deployed on a number of routes including Berlin, Beauvais, Bratislava, Cologne, Eindhoven, Friedrichshafen, Gothenburg, Hahn, Hamburg, Hannover, Malmo, Memmingen, Nuremberg and Rome. Together, the two aircraft will operate a total of 42 flights per week. As a result, Wizz Air will increase its capacity from Macedonia by 23% this year when compared to 2017, offering 1.8 million seats for sale from Skopje and Ohrid. On June 1, Poland's LOT will commence six weekly services to the Macedonian capital, which will continue throughout the winter at four per week after the airline upgraded the route from seasonal to year-round operations. In addition, leisure airline TUIfly will introduce seasonal summer flights between Dusseldorf and Skopje in cooperation with the Reiseburo Prishtina tour operator. Services will run once per week, each Saturday from Dusseldorf and Sunday from Skopje, starting July 7 until September 2.
Macedonia's second international airport in Ohrid has also seen strong growth during the first quarter by handling 16.109 travellers. Following the successful launch of Onur Air's seasonal summer flights from Istanbul earlier this month, Ohrid will also see several new routes launched including Eindhoven by TUIfly, Brussels by Brussels Airlines, Tallinn operated by Nordica, Maastricht by Corendon Dutch Airlines and Warsaw by Enter Air. Furthermore, in November, Wizz Air will inaugurate three weekly flights from Vienna to Ohrid with its A321 jet. In addition, it has also upgraded its seasonal summer flights from London Luton to the lake-side town from summer seasonal to year-round operations.
Busiest airports in the former Yugoslavia, Q1 2018
| Airport | PAX | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Belgrade | 997.518 | ▲ 4.3 |
| Zagreb | 585.576 | ▲ 13.5 |
| Skopje | 432.620 | ▲ 22.6 |
| Pristina | 418.134 | ▲ 17.0 |
| Ljubljana | 329.212 | ▲ 14.2 |
| Podgorica | 181.381 | ▲ 18.1 |
| Sarajevo | 169.124 | ▲ 19.2 |
| Tuzla | 119.651 | ▲ 51.9 |
| Split | 117.493 | ▲ 33.2 |
| Dubrovnik | 94.038 | ▲ 23.8 |
Comments
Interesting that SPU was overtaken by TZL but LJU numbers are sad. Hope they improve soon.
pax nr. with final destination ZAG and SKP are almost the same in Q1. almost
(btw i didnt want to slam ZAG in any way)
forget the hypocrites
Love from Sofia!
Prasina ce se vidjeti vec 3.5. kad objave rezultate za travanj.
Ohrid - Basel
with W6 theres only 1 carry-on for free ;)
I so hope an airline other than Wizz gets the new subsidies. They need to get some competition.
dont wanna ask for SAS
wizz: Karlsruhe, Katowice, PRG, ATH
ryanair: Weeze, Karlsruhe, Stansted
HR coast is unfortunately very bad to reach from SKP and is keeping the numbers of MK tourists very low
dream on
In any case, the support is going to OHD, not SKP. So anyone is welcome really.
To your point, it has been proven the ULCC model creates 80-90% new demand on top of the old one, at least as far as CEE flights go. Haters would say 'people who traveled by bus', but then again, now they travel far more often.
Having said that, it seems the whole region has been booming in the last decade in terms of air transport, with each destination finding their own model that works. People around here just don't know how to enjoy each others success, but prefer the provincial bickering. No wonder YU failed.
So SKP, PRN and SOF will continue to serve and profit from that market.
SMFH!
And I think this is also bad for Greek travelers, not just Macedonians.
I believe easyJet would be a far more probable and useful addition.
Spain: BCN success is the biggest surprise at all. cheap FR/Wizz flights to MAD might work. Its risky though
There are no LCCs in Split and Dubrovnik, they do not subsidize Wizz or Ryan air like Tuzla does. Otherwise you'd see half a million LCC travelers as well. Only Zadar so far has LCC subsidies in place, others don't care to, they've got enough paying traffic. Split Airport has more profits in one month, than Tuzla airport in entire year or entire decade it seems.
When Tuzla generates 87 million kuna of net profits in a single year, come back to me with numbers.
Croatian airports work on principle of making profit. No idea how other airports in the region operate.
Annually, transfer passengers generate around 16% of Zagreb's total number, however Zagreb has around 3.1 million pax, so that figure isn't that big when you consider other stuff.
Also, Zagreb doesn't have an LCC operator like Wizz, or Croatia pays subsidies to anyone to land in Zagreb. This year Zagreb will have around 3.5 million pax, should be fun.
Not really, or EasyJet, these 4 airlines are more of hybrid airlines.
Hardly, only 32 000 Macedonians visited Croatia in 2017, that is less tourist than from far of Thailand or India.
We have nothing in common any longer, it seems, you don't want to visit our lovely coastline, buy our goods or do anything brotherly. Like we never lived together :(
Now you're talking nonsense. if Belgrade hits 9 million by 2026 you'll be happy, 12 million 2034/5 not before.
Norwegian 10, Volotea 8 onda vueling itd ...
in which universe do you live ??
Dbv Has 2.34 million Zagreb has 3.1 million, this year, Zagreb will have 3.4 million Dubr around 2.7 million at most. no chance Dbrv can have 3.4 million in 2020, 3.2 million at best.
And out of Zagreb new routes are launched every year, most a year round and larger aircraft are sent to Zagreb.
Anyhow, won't react to a troll.
So, back the point. What you're saying is that ZAG will continue to grow in 2019 at a steady rate of 15% and not receiving any extra routes or frequencies, right? If so, enlighten us how.
ZAG nearly sees any Dreamliners, Ruski Jumbo jets or numerous widebodies, even in summer.
You will reply, DBV is sleepy in winter, right? I will reply back: Which airport generates more traffic in July, is it ZAG or DBV?
I read that it was covered worldwide by so many media.
BiH is becoming very popular and more and more people start talking about it.
Last 2 years it was TZL and soon BNX.
Also being close to ZAG, it will play a very crucial role.
try to reach Dalmacija from Macedonia...you need to go through 10 countries
also there is not a single advert or billboard in MK. there must be some iniciative to trigger it again
http://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/02/rossiya-to-deploy-b747-to-dubrovnik_13.html
Do you have 522 seated aircraft in ZAG, by any chance?
But yes, DBV is a sleep town in winter (yawn)
Anyway, there is simply no demand for Croatia from Macedonia. That's why OU failed from SPU.
Look at its growth, winter is already getting busier and busier.
This summer there are only a handful of extra flights to ZAG while SPU is exploding!
No wonder they are adding a third flight. Who knows maybe they end up adding a fourth soon.
In the sense that instead of flying to Macedonia they are forced to drive to it.
It is especially bad for Greeks living in Athens and the rest of South Greece that need to drive a long distance to visit.
In case you don't know there are a lot of Greek business having investments in Macedonia and all these businessmen can only come by car.
You really shouldn't be commenting after "smoking". ;)
In INI however, LX fly the true and real LX 320 because there is demand. The INI-ZRH route is here to stay.
BEG in 2017 handled 5,343,420 pax. So if you predicted in 5 years time 12 million this means that BEG needs to grow by 1.3 million pax annually until 2023....hmmmm...you tell me...