Ryanair and easyJet have shown interest in the Macedonian market, the head of the country's Civil Aviation Agency, Goran Jandreoski, has said. He added that Wizz Air will not withdraw from Macedonia after the airline announced the suspension of its Skopje - Vaxjo service from next month and the seasonal downgrade of its Skopje - Barcelona and Ohrid - London Luton routes, following years of expansion from the country. "The Ministry for Transport and Communications has adopted a decree that is aimed at attracting low cost airlines. It is not just Wizz Air, there is also interest from Ryanair and easyJet. The Agency is always at hand to provide support so everyone can enjoy the benefits of low cost travel for a long time to come. Wizz Air did not accidently station four aircraft at our airport", Mr Jandreoski said, referring to Skopje.
In 2015 Ryanair confirmed it would introduce flights to the Macedonian capital and noted it was negotiating with the government over a range of routes. Wizz Air quickly followed with the announcement of several new services to Skopje from Ryanair bases. Ultimately, Europe's busiest budget carrier shelved its plans to enter the Macedonian market. Commenting on Ryanair's shift towards the east, the airline's Chief Marketing Officer, Kenny Jacobs, noted last year, “It’s going to be more Ryanair and Wizz going head to head. It’s going to get harder [for Wizz], given our scale, our cost advantage, and our fare advantage. It’ll be an interesting scrap in the coming years”. On the other hand, easyJet has said it is unfazed by Wizz Air's expansion on the Macedonian market and will only launch flights to the country if there is sufficient demand. “easyJet is focused on its successful strategy to expand across Europe and operates in the best interests of the company and its customers ensuring the attractiveness of its network. This means the airline concentrates its efforts on maintaining and developing routes which prove popular with passengers. We consider competition only in regards of tactic opportunities that can be complementary to our strategy”, the airline said.
The CEO of Turkey's TAV, which runs Macedonia's two airports, Sani Sener, recently said that despite being a Wizz Air stronghold, there is room for more low cost players in the country. "Skopje is already a successful Wizz Air base, but we think there is considerable opportunity for more low cost operators", Mr Sener said. Wizz Air handled over 659.000 passengers on flights to and from Macedonia during the first half of the year, carrying 63.3% of all travellers to the country. It was followed by Turkish Airlines in a distant second place with a 8.1% passenger share, then Austrian Airlines with 5.1% of the market, Germania Flug with 4.6%, Edelweiss Air with a 3.8% share, Croatia Airlines with a 3.1% share, and Pegasus Airlines with a 3% traveller share.
Comments
What would hurt SKP is that PRN is waking up, so the growths of recent years may be over. Some alanian diaspora heavy routes may be shifted to PRN, at most
Bulgaria is a much larger market so such scenario is possible there. Not so sure about Macedonia.
Interestingly enough, N.Macedonia is one of the very few countries in Europe with a positive or growth in the population even though it is 0,3%, it is still much better compared to the rest in the region.
Anyway, we will see if Wizz will announce new routes for 2019, they usually do it in September.
As for easyJet, they will announce theirs by September end too.
As for Ryan, usually they do it before the rest of the carriers.
https://image.ibb.co/cAyexc/28424033_1823406937671426_4660499903203568625_o.jpg
Hope to see a sight like this at SKP sometime in the future :)
I don't think there will be more LCC expansions from SOF. What is now trendy are the leisure destinations, charter destinations and the Gulf ones.
So, maybe SKP can focus on charter or leisure?
Gatwick, Berlin, Barcelona, Orly, Mallorca and Oslo can be nice INI additions.
Cancellation of Vaxjo is not a surprise since Scandinavia is densely covered from SKP and Barcelona is a seasonal route by itself.
So, again, don't you worry about that.
Second, the figures about population growth you may have are probably extrapolated from the number of births and deaths, but as for the other countries of the region migration is a big issue in Macedonia as well, so until there is a census (last one held in 2002) nobody actually knows whats the population of the country,
and third:
will you please stop with this N Macedonia crap
Regarding Sweden, I think you are 100% right. It was really oversaturated.
We might see new SKP route but most likely coming from another Wizz Air base e.g. Warsaw-Skopje or Kutaisi-Skopje, etc.
Nothing wrong to have Barcelona as seasonal, also it's becoming less popular and not good for business because of the independence movement, there are serious problems in the society and this is affecting tourism somehow.
Additionally, in summer you have flights from Sofia too.
If you compare LJU, the traffic over there might be humble, but more organic and natural.
BEG-LCA too!!
Not quite sure LIS will survive the winter in SOF either, will be interesting to see. In any case, lIsbon is a great place to visit (in the warm months)
In all seriousness, if the government is thinking about dropping some of the aircraft basing criteria, I'd recommend they drop the requirement to base an a/c altogether and open the possibility for the tender to be won by more than one airline and be awarded on a per-route basis. No need to completely copy/paste the old approach which was perfectly fine in a time where a substantial initial investment and sustained presence were absolutely necessary.
Obviously I'd recommend sticking with certain criteria as to the airline size and solvency, you don't want just any scumbag with a shady "business model" applying. Regardless whether it's a "local family" or a "big airline JV". You want proper airlines present and committed with their name and money on the line.
As a side note, it always makes me a bit sad seeing how people around here fail to put into perspective 5 mil subsidies against 200 mil commitment. If I were trying to justify it, I guess it's a mater of general ignorance and lack of trust in numbers so I don't really blame them. It's just that if left unchecked, this can easily be abused by spinning the $$$ into hyperbole, which you can see happen on daily basis and prevents civilized and informed discussion.
It's not up to the gov to allow or not. It's pretty much out of their hands. As a matter of fact, they're actually doing everything (they're capable of) to pull anyone else than Wizz at the moment. While I hope it makes a difference, I wouldn't hold my breath.
It clearly shows important Vienna is to Wizz Air. They have made so many cuts in their bases this year.
Belgrade remains one of the most important bases with 1 affected route only.
PRN is barely less than 100km away - already becoming a serious, regional player
INI - 199km (hurting SKP-ZRH, SKP-BTS, SKP-EIN, SKP-BSL)
SOF - 240km (90% covered exception Sweden)
SKG - 235km (100% covered yet very seasonal)
TIA - 288km (100% covered - direct competition)
Kraljevo - 300km (built, yet ready to strike at any moment especially flights to IST might become affected)
TK is not a stupid airline, if they have suggested this route is because there is potential in it. also maybe they carried out a study in cooperation with TAV so we never know.
True to some extent, but it's a fact that people opt for SOF, PRN and SKG when the offer is better (I presume lately INI, but that's small). TIA and Kraljevo are not competitors by any means.
Also SKP was a true champion to be able to sustain this route for many years now.
Одличан Скопie
Also, having based planes introduces more demand for macedonian workers, while this is halvwd, at best, when starting flights to macedonia, rather than from. The Tender was aimed not only to make new routes, but to xreate more local jobs. This is why anulling it for a dumb reason is inacceptable
The tender was set to base ine more aircraft in SKP and one (for the first time) in OHD. Ohrid was the main benificiarry of basing the planes
Also, having based planes introduces more demand for macedonian workers, while this is halvwd, at best, when starting flights to macedonia, rather than from. The Tender was aimed not only to make new routes, but to xreate more local jobs. This is why anulling it for a dumb reason is inacceptable
If Wizz Air wins the tender, Wizz Air will base new aircraft and secure the job for 25 people at least. Those are the public money that should be used for public interests, and first of all for raising employment. That should be aim of the tender. It is not spotting aircrafts.
If Ryan Air or easyJet win the tender, they WON'T do that.
Noone bans RyanAir or easyJet. Set the flights, but without subsides!
And, to make it clear to all those frequent comments: WizzAir CAN'T fly from non-EU ti non-EU, unless they register aircraft in one of those. Stop be serious with SKP-DWC, SKP-KUT, SKP-BEG/TGD and so on. xD
What the Macedonian authorities have done is distort the market. As a consequence, one operator has gained unfair advantage over others at SKP and beyond. Subsequently, the Macedonian authorities are trying to further distort the market so as to make the "playing field" more equal by giving one or more other operators unfair advantage over the dominant operator as well as other remaining operators. The logic behind this seems to be that two wrongs make a right. But we all know that two wrongs make two wrongs.
A number of people on this site have been skeptical about where the relationship between the Macedonian government and Wizz Air will lead to. It's not Wizz Air's fault that it has become such a dominant operator in Macedonia. Now, punishing it in order bring other operators is unfair on Wizz Air. Subsidies should be open to everyone. You can have tiered subsidies, but of course Wizz Air stands to benefit the most because they can offer more than anyone else and at a lower cost than anyone else because of their market position.
Even if, say, the new subsidies bring someone like easyJet or even Lufthansa, can you not see how that unfairly hurts other honest operators at the airport such as Turkish Airlines, Austrian Airlines, or even Swiss (in relation to GVA route) who have paid all due fees to SKP from the beginning? Even if you request specific new routes, say to CDG or AMS, how can this possibly be fair on Turkish Airlines (and IST) or Austrian Airlines (and VIE) that have provided decades of honest service to SKP and have invested heavily to create a market for themselves to provide connections via IST or VIE?
SKP has bitten the bullet and it's stuck with Wizz Air for better or for worse. And rest assured that if Wizz Air is unfairly discriminated in future subsidy programmes then they will sue the relevant authorities. For God's sake, you yourself are stating that they have committed 200m Euros on the Macedonian market and if they were to leave or scale down because of unfair treatment then they would face "financial repercussions." The authorities seemed very pleased when passenger numbers more than doubled since the arrival of Wizz Air, they cannot have it both ways. They better be pleased with the choice of operators or they will face legal actions to protect those "200m Euros investment."
#anObservaton