Swiss leisure carrier Edelweiss Air will introduce services between Zurich and Ohrid next month, in what is shaping up to be a busy summer for St Paul the Apostle Airport. The Swiss International Air Lines subsidiary will launch operations to Ohrid on April 6, initially once per week, each Saturday, before increasing to two weekly on July 16. "Edelweiss will operate a year-round flight to Ohrid, departing on Saturdays, and an additional flight in July and August, departing on Tuesdays. The flights from Zurich to Ohrid can be booked now", the company said in a statement. The Lufthansa Group member airline already maintains services to Skopje.
Ohrid Airport is gearing up for a record summer season. In addition to Edelweiss, Wizz Air is set to introduce four year-round routes from the city starting next month. They include Malmo, Milan, Memmingen and Dortmund. Furthermore, the Macedonian Embassy in Turkey has said that Turkish low cost carrier Pegasus Airlines will launch services from Izmir to Ohrid "in late May 2019", although the flights are yet to be scheduled. Ohrid Airport started the year off on a strong note by handling 8.132 passengers in January, representing an increase of 40.5% on the year before. At the same time, the number of aircraft movements grew 32% to 66.
The Macedonian government has reiterated it plans to attract a number of low cost airlines to launch operations to Ohrid. The country's Minister for Transport and Communication, Goran Sugareski, said, "We will promote Ohrid Airport for low cost airlines. We want to make Ohrid and its airport operational, as well as use its facilities to enable more tourists to visit Macedonia. The number of passengers at Ohrid is growing each month, so we expect for the figures to continue rising with the measures we will be taking". Ohrid Airport holds potential for attracting not only tourists visiting its picturesque surroundings but also a significant number of Albanian passengers due to its close proximity to the boarder. Apart from the new routes being launched to the city this year, Ohrid is also served by Arkia Israeli Airlines, Germania Flug, Helvetic Airways, Brussels Airlines, TUIfly, Onur Air, Enter Air, Nordica, Corendon Dutch Airlines and Wizz Air.
Edelweiss Air will compete directly against Germania Flug and Helvetic Airways on the new Zurich service, although the latter two maintain only seasonal summer operations to the city. Further details on Edelweiss' new flights to Ohrid can be found here.
So Ohrid was as busy as BNX, interesting.
ReplyDeleteOhrid is a much more seaaonal destination so the result is quite good.
DeleteWow well done Oheid!
ReplyDeleteThe good thing about Edelweiss is that it lets you connect onto Swiss' flights under 1 ticket.
ReplyDeleteAlways nice to see Ohrid get more traffic. It's a beautiful area.
ReplyDeleteOHD is booming and well deserved.
DeleteWell done to Ohrid. I'm surprised that Wizz Air is not introducing direct flights to Athens taking into account the large Albanian diaspora in Greece. Ohrid could definitely attract more passengers from south east Albania.
ReplyDeleteOverall, well done to them for the ongoing expansion!
A big portion (if not majority) of that 'diaspora' works in Greece illegally, same as many Serbs. Using a plane is not an option for them.
Delete@ anon10:07. I'm not sure what stat you are referring to when you state that a big portion of them are illegal but form the 2001 Greek census there were 443,550 legal Alb immigrants residing in Greece. This no has probably increased by now (might have even doubled). Certainly, there are illegal immigrants but they do not make up a considerable proportion. (https://web.archive.org/web/20090325222928/http://www.migrantsingreece.org/transpartner/Tables.pdf).
DeleteOn top of this, there is a considerable Greek minority residing in the South of the country who have dual citizenship and travel regularly to Greece.
It's something that Wizz Air or other airlines might consider in the future.
the flight Malpensa-Ohrid will be a clear indicator if Wizz can tap into the south-Albanian diaspora market which we all expect it will.
DeleteAthens might be a good call tho
I think the flight is to Bergamo not Malpensa.
DeleteNope, it's from Malpensa.
DeleteYeah. I just saw it on the Web. That's great.
DeleteWhen they first announced the route I thought they chose Bergamo.
Thousands of Albanians have left Greece since the beginning of the crisis.
DeleteThat is true, but the travel demand between Albania and Greece is still high
DeleteBob 12:09
DeleteIt is Malpensa.I am flying with the inaugural flight 19.03, wll try to post some info/numbers after.
There is still a lot of untapped potential in Ohrid. It is still not very discovered by tourists and it is in a good location to serve Albania too.
ReplyDeleteAgree. It really is a special place there.
DeleteHow many pax are expected in OHD in 2019?
ReplyDeleteOhrid may very well double its numbers this year.
Delete260-280k
DeleteFinally the focus is shifting to OHD. Hopefully we get to see more year-round routes
ReplyDeleteAny plans to expand OHD terminal?
ReplyDeleteIt is still sufficient for the volume of traffic it has.
DeleteGreat news for Ohrid. I hope it's the next success story
ReplyDelete5 new routes in one year is amazing for such a small airport!
ReplyDeleteWith Izmir it might be 6.
DeleteOHD should try to attract more flights from Scandinavia for tourists.
ReplyDeleteScandinavian and Eastern European markets too. These is an ideal destination for CIS countries.
DeleteI really hope that AirSerbia will return to OHD.
DeleteMoscow - Ohrid would work too.
DeleteThere are still a few airline which could start flights, particularly to Ohrid. Would be nice if they attracted Adria back. I think 2 weekly with their Saabs would work perfectly.
Delete@10.36.
DeleteAgree. For the Russians, OHD would be a true gem. This is exactly the type of destination they like. Nice lake, cobbled streets, cheap prices...
I'm surprised that OHD is still 'undiscovered' by the Russians
DeletePobeda would be perfect for OHD.
DeleteI agree it is odd that Russians have still not discovered Ohrid in big numbers. Especially since they don't need a visa for Macedonia.
Deleteand its cyrilic :D
DeleteOhrid is a beautiful destination, this is very nice.
ReplyDeleteNice, and they've already put tickets on sale for winter 19/20.
ReplyDeleteGood look OHD!
ReplyDeleteGreat news coming from Macedonia this year with new routes from Ohrid and Skopje. It's impressive for a relatively small market but it's definitely growing. Good work.
ReplyDeleteThis is mostly for gastos but it's still good news.
ReplyDeleteThe more airlines the better, regardless of the clientele they serve :)
Deletemostly for gastos but the swiss, austrian and german media all reported it as a new a touristic route ("Ohrid Urlauber") which is a nice twist
DeleteWith Edelweiss starting Ohrid, perhaps Swiss could consider upgrading Skopje to mainline operations.
ReplyDeleteWhat's with all the flights from the Netherlands to Ohrid?
ReplyDeleteTourists.
Deleteit all started with Doolaards Ohrid related novels...
Delete'With the publication of his novels "Oriënt-Express" in 1934 and "The Wedding of the Seven Gypsies" in 1939, den Doolaard generated an extraordinary interest in Macedonia. For decades Dutch have been among the most numerous tourists in Macedonia, "
Many many years ago Transavia had flights to Ohrid :)
DeleteYes, that was during Yugoslav times. Would be nice to see them back after so many years.
DeleteThis is a serious seasonal opportunity for OU and JU (but not for flights after midnight :D). nr of croatian tourists in Ohrid have really picked up and in Aug&Sept they outnumbered (according official MK statistic numbers for Ohrid) our serbian neighbours which i never thougth was possible
ReplyDeleteneedless to say that a seasonal SOF service should have started by now
This is also being code shared by Swiss. Finally some year-round Star Alliance presence in OHD
ReplyDeleteNice!
DeleteGod bless Jerusalem of the Balkans. Good to see all those positive developments.
ReplyDeleteLets hope for long-haul flights soon too.
Long haul from Ohrid? Are you serious?
DeleteWhy not? Why so much jealousy?
DeleteDo you know the meaning of the word jelousy? What am I jelous about?
DeleteHow many year round routes from OHD?
ReplyDeleteIf the new routes are included there will be 7 - Zurich, Dortmund, Memmigen, Basel, Malmo, Milan and Vienna.
DeleteShame Wizz dropped London year round.
DeleteSoo Ryanair, EasyJet, Norwegian and etc. we wait for you. Seems that maybe this summer will be even more airlines with more destinations from OHD. Can we wait for low-costs or regular airlines without subsidaries?
ReplyDeleteNovair, Norwegian or Thomas Cook should start flights to Norway and Denmark. Since Wizz starts Malmö, maybe for Sweden just Gotheburg or Stockholm would br good. Nice to see SAS.
ReplyDeleteWhy did JU stop flying to OHD? How was this route performing and why was in not successful?
ReplyDeleteWas it the timetable?
They had the most bizarre timetable. I believe they had departures out of OHD at 4 am or something
Delete