Skopje Airport sees steep July decline

GLOBAL AVIATION NEWS

Qatar Airways posts $4.1 billion loss

Qatar Airways has announced that it suffered a more than $4 billion loss in revenues over the last fiscal year, as lockdowns triggered by the coronavirus pandemic slashed demand for long haul travel. The major loss, which the state-owned airline largely attributed to the grounding of its Airbus A380 and A330 wide-body jets, highlights the dramatic toll of the pandemic on the industry. Even so, the Doha-based airline reported an increase in earnings to $1.6 billion before taxes and other costs compared to the previous year - costs that dropped significantly as the airline saved on jet fuel, reduced salaries by 15% and cut some 13.400 employees from its workforce. The pandemic has hit international routes the hardest, dealing a heavy blow to super-connectors in the Persian Gulf that essentially lack domestic markets. In the last several months, the flagship carrier has received a boost from an end to a yearslong boycott that locked Qatar Airways out of the airspace of Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The embargo had forced the airline to take longer routes and consume more jet fuel, raising expenses. For the first time since 2017, the energy-rich state's airline reopened key routes to hubs like Dubai, Cairo and Riyadh as the political dispute eased in January. The long-haul carrier praised its resilience in the face of the fast-spreading virus variants still racing around the globe, noting that its operational loss of $288 million stood at 7% less than the year before. “Whilst our competitors grounded their aircraft and closed their routes, we adapted our entire commercial operation to respond to ever-evolving travel restrictions and never stopped flying”, Qatar Airways CEO, Akbar al-Baker, said in a statement. The airline acknowledged receiving a $3 billion lifeline from the Qatari government to keep operating as it struggled with virus restrictions. The carrier took just 5.8 million passengers to the skies in the last fiscal year, compared to 32.3 million the year before - a staggering 82% drop.
Reuters

Skopje Airport sees steep July decline

NEWS FLASH

Person walking up to Skopje Airport terminal

Skopje Airport welcomed 57.419 passengers through its doors in July, representing a decrease of 76.3% compared to the same month in 2019. The number of commercial aircraft movements decreased 55.6% to 833. During the first seven months of the year, Skopje Airport handled 443.679 travellers, down 57% on the same period in 2019. In addition to European Union entry restrictions, which are affecting loads on flights, July also saw Austria, Italy and Poland introduce flights bans on traffic to and from Macedonia. Skopje Airport reopened on July 1 following its three-and-a-half-month closure for commercial traffic as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Anonymous12:39
better than 90%
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Anonymous15:53
My friend arrived on OS Q400 from VIE today, he said they were around 10 people on the plane. Don't know about the flight back.
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Anonymous17:55
Also, let's not forget about Wizz reducing its fleet by 1 plane. It will be unlikely that SKP grows in the near future.
That said, it seems PRN is recovering very quickly.
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Anonymous20:11
How can they be only 57% down when the airport was totally shut for over 3 months?
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Skopje Airport sees steep July decline

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