easyJet to launch Skopje flights


easyJet will enter the Macedonian market this coming winter season with the low cost carrier to introduce services between Geneva and Skopje. Flights will be inaugurated on November 1 and initially run twice per week, each Monday and Friday, before increasing to three weekly from December. The airline faces no direct competition on the route. It will become the only budget airline to serve Skopje Airport together with Wizz Air and Pegasus Airlines. 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.

Based on OAG data, a total of 3.923 passengers travelled indirectly between the Macedonian capital and Geneva in the pre-pandemic 2019, while the figure stood at just over 600 last year. These figures only include travellers who flew on a single itinerary via another point to reach either Geneva or Skopje. Wizz Air, which dominates in Skopje, is unable to maintain services between Switzerland and Macedonia as flights between the two are regulated through bilateral agreements. Its operations to Basel are considered as being performed to France. On the other hand, easyJet has a Swiss subsidiary.

easyJet previously said it was unfazed by Wizz Air's presence on the Macedonian market and would only operate flights to the country if there were 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. As a result of the new service, Bosnia and Herzegovina will become the only market in the former Yugoslavia not to be served by easyJet.

Further details for the new Geneva - Skopje service can be found here.



Comments

  1. Anonymous09:04

    Smart route. This will do well. I'm sure there will be some passengers from Kosovo too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:34

      for sure

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:15

      It actually serves exclusively the Albanian community in Northern Macedonia and Kosovo.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:44

      exclusively ?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous17:17

      Have you ever met Macedonians in Switzerland ?
      I have never, except Albanian ones .
      I dont want to offend anyone but thats my observation .

      Delete
    5. Anonymous17:21

      lol

      Delete
    6. Anonymous17:27

      Anon 10:15
      About 80-90.000 Macedonians in CH.And you've met none...

      Delete
    7. Anonymous17:29

      @17.17 congrats you qualified for top 5 most stupid posts we have read here this year

      Delete
    8. Anonymous17:35

      must be the same guy that trolls here on every occasion against SKP

      nor has he been to CH nor has he taken a flight from SKP to know whats he talking. only pure hate

      Delete
    9. Anonymous18:00

      ^ He didnt want to be offensive.
      Only stating the obvious. Of course there are 80.000 Macedonians in Suisse.
      But the swiss statistics count every person who was born in Northern Macedonia as Macedonian regardless of ethnicity.

      Delete
    10. Tranquilis18:22

      As a Macedonian of Macedonian ethnicity (among others) myself in Suisse, and one that has looked at the topic in great detail, I can tell you there's at least 50k of us here, if not more.

      The trick is, while in these 80k there are approx 45-50k Albanians, there are many more Macedonians with Bulgarian passports.

      So yeah, I don't know where in Switzerland he was looking when he said there are no Macedonians here. Suisse Romande, in particular canton Vaud, are full of Macedonians, most of which have come in the last 20 years. The majority are from Macedonia's south-east. To that you can add the ones in the German part who are the majority, however the composition of which is a bit different - average stay 25-30 years already.

      Delete
    11. Tranquilis18:26

      Of course easyJet netdev team have been privy to all of the above information and then some for quite a while now.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous23:23

      Of course.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:04

    They should have launched this 10 years and used the fact that Wizz can't fly from Switzerland, except for Basel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:08

      They could have even launched Basel-Skopje. It's one of Wizz Air's busiest routes.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:29

      How many flights does W6 have?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:50

      daily

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:30

      That's a truly inspiring number, at least it inspired easyJet to join the party.

      Delete
    5. Tranquilis13:47

      Took them a while alright after they already missed out on the BSL golden goose.

      Better late than never I guess. Or rather.. phew, finally. And a 1-5 schedule as well, it will be very welcome to the Suisse Romande catchment.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:05

    Long overdue.
    SKP needs some more love this winter after TK, JU, OU, OS and Pegasus all reduced their initial schedules.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:35

      plus no QR and FZ.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous21:10

      How in the world can EasyJet compensate any of those?

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:05

    Good news. And they are not even using the Macedonian government's subsidies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:07

      The volume is so large that they don't need to. This will for sure affect flights from BSL since people didn't have convenient flights out of GVA until now.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:17

      Wonder if Wizz will now reduce fares from BSL.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:54

      Why would they? They are not expensive

      Delete
    4. It won't affect.Wizz BSL route big time, when you know even people from Strasbourg(F), Offenburg/Freiburg (D) are using those flights

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:08

    Easy Jet finally let go of its stubbornness and is starting flights!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:08

    Welcome EasyJet!
    Excited more about the bold move by Easy to test the market in Macedonia with this route, which if runs well I'm sure they will consider other destinations in near future.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous09:10

    Time for some trip down south to the North Macedonia and a bit of JV's airport management "Re education" refreshment course.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous09:14

    Hoping for easyjet to start flights from Switzerland to OHD as well.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous09:16

    Bravo Skopje well done

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous09:16

    The fares are great

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous09:18

    It's great that a new low cost airline has started flights to Skopje. More so because it could get Wizz Air to become less complacent and make them launch new routes without waiting for government stimulus.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tranquilis13:50

      No, not really. GVA would've been launched ten years ago if not for regulatory barriers to entry.

      If they launched something else though, perhaps. I wouldn't hold my breath though.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous09:19

    Really really happy about this. Just fingers crossed it doesn't turn out like the Eurowings flights.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous09:21

    Great news. What other routes could we see easyjet eventually launch from Skopje?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:22

      Berlin would make sense.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:24

      Why? Wizz Air already flies Skopje-Berlin.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:27

      True forgot there is SKP-BER already.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous09:25

    Wizz won't like this.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous09:25

    Very nice! I think this is the second new airline at Skopje since Covid started.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:29

      What's the other one?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:32

      Windrose

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:02

      Also Nordwind!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:03

      Nordwind

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:01

      No this will be the fifth one, first is Windrose, then Nordwind, Anadolu Jet, Air Mediterranean which operates on route BSL - SKP twice a week and now easyjet.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous09:32

    they started PRN years ago. they know about the region and the gastarbeiters in SWI

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous09:33

    easyJet is not the most adventurous airline out there so its good to see them spreading their wings across ex-Yu.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous09:42

    At least it's not Wizz :D

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous09:42

    Good news for Skopje, but it's just another uninspirational gasterbeiter route.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:45

      LOL

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:46

      Majority of SKP´s destinations are based on 3 countries: Germany, Switzerland and Sweden

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:47

      Albanians

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:48

      and yet the legacy carrier Switzerland has zero flights to SKP

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:49

      What do you expect? Ibiza, Fuertaventura and Mallorca? Or BA, SAS, AF? Who can afford it? The most sustainable routes are the gasties ones (mostly Albanians visiting home lands).

      Delete
    6. Anonymous09:53

      lol sure. only Albanians are flying to SKopje. the NLB expert again...

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:32

      Well it was reported on here that the CEO of PRN said that 50% of passengers at SKP are from Kosovo*

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:47

      without proving any facts aka presenting numbers. rekla-kazala style only known in the Balkans (...his sources are probably the anons here). Only the OU's officials beat him with their statements.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous11:22

      If PRN has enough Swiss traffic to fill a 340,then I'm not surprised about SKP. The route is mainly to serve Albanians..

      Delete
    10. Anonymous12:15

      Hah Mr "Market will take of itself" again at @09:53.

      For your information, it wasn't me before but there are people who do market analysis and not just check pure passenger number on flight.

      Ask your boss when Easy will start LJU :)

      Delete
    11. LJU is lost. Like one of the guys here said a few months ago, LJU would make more money if they convert to a kart centre :D

      Delete
    12. Tranquilis13:53

      Hilarious to see comments here like 'PRN airport claims 50% of SKP pax...'

      Wanna know the real number? 5%. First hand insight of course.

      Delete
  20. Anonymous09:56

    took them only 10 years...

    not starting Basel-Skopje while Wizz was not around is the biggest joke...

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous09:58

    are we done now with the Stelios-Conspiracy? :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:40

      hahaha I remembered that too.

      Maybe he left easyjet's shareholding :D

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:49

      Or maybe he is a businessman that only cares about $€$€$€ ?

      Delete
  22. Anonymous10:16

    Ok, now people from North Macedonia don't have to go to Pristina if they want to fly to Geneva. Smart decision.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tranquilis13:54

      We rather used BSL anyway.

      2.5 hrs by car/train in Switzerland vs 2 hrs by car in Kosovo, and with a better schedule as well? Yeah I know my preference.

      Delete
  23. Anonymous10:26

    if easyjet were a bit more adventurous theres stil many opportunities at SKP for flights from one of their bases: AMS, PRG , LGW ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:41

      I think AMS would be particularly successful.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:49

      agree

      Delete
    3. Definitely AMS and LGW. Was thinking about those ones earlier as well

      Delete
  24. Anonymous10:29

    Easyjet generally is frightened from anything in Eastern Europe.
    Any new route like this is very rare and maybe only happens because of their Swiss subsidiary which is much more proactive .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:41

      Or they are afraid of Wizz.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:09

      I just think they are completely uninterested.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:51

      Easyjet is a typical outbound orientated airline .
      If there is no outbound for a route from their bases flights dont happen .

      Delete
    4. Anonymous19:34

      @11.51 nteresting thought!

      Delete
  25. Anonymous10:39

    Halleluja! the most obvious route missing in SKP's network is finally taken :)

    lets concentrate now on LJU route :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:08

      I think there are more important routes than LJU.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:16

      debatable :) FRA is more important then a GVA gasto route yet a GVA route makes more sense due to diaspora. likewise LJU

      Delete
    3. Anonymous17:01

      * than a GVA gasto route

      Delete
  26. Anonymous11:10

    I'm shocked it took them so long to start Skopje.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous11:23

    where are the anon experts from Sunday now to protest that Geneva route started with even lower indirect pax number then SKP-SJJ :D

    again these numbers are not that much relevant for low cost airlines

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:52

      True. Also it is without additional stimulus that any new route generates. The numbers give some sort of indication

      Delete
  28. Anonymous11:24

    I still cannot believe they don't operate to OTP, which is a huge Ghasto market as well.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous11:25

    will they jump on SKP-BSL?

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous11:30

    "easyJet previously said it was unfazed by Wizz Air's presence on the Macedonian market and would only operate flights to the country if there were sufficient demand."

    Ahahah what about Basel ?!?
    even Ohrid had more then two weekly this summer

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous12:18

    There would be so many routes to Ex Yu that could be more succesfull for Easyjet than this one.
    You can only shake your head if you consider the foreign airlines and heir odd choices .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:23

      tend to disagree. at least for the south east part of ex yu. Switzerland is the cash cow of all gasto markets

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:33

      But just for cheap lccs.

      Delete
  32. Anonymous12:25

    all eyes on Ryanair now ;)

    ReplyDelete
  33. great news ! maybe Easyjet will start new routes in 2022

    ReplyDelete
  34. Anonymous17:37

    they only serve GVA,Basel or Berlin from the region. not much

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:47

      They serve London from Ljubljana.

      Delete
  35. Anonymous22:45

    We need an easyjet base in Skopje.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Anonymous22:46

    Happy to see more routes and airlines coming to SKP. But I would really like the management to try and attract more European legacy airlines.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Anonymous22:47

    So Podgorica, Zagreb and Sarajevo left for them to start.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Anonymous04:05

    So Easyjet in december will serve Skopje from Geneva three times a week.
    Somewhere i read they will increase Geneva to Belgrade to six times a week in december,is this just a rumour or fact? Does anybody have more info?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous08:22

      You can easily check their website. Yes, it is 6 weekly from December.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:22

      ^ thank you a lot!

      Delete
  39. Anonymous04:50

    Is this going to end up like Tuzla? Incumbent LCC is not happy with airport manager for allowing lowcost competitor to launch flights. Private jet arrives from BUD. Following the visit airport manager gets sacked and Easyjet cancels the route. Could this happen in SKP?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tranquilis08:59

      No. Wizz Air can't serve Geneva from Skopje.

      Delete
  40. Anonymous10:18

    Admin, why do you delete non-violating comments???
    I tried 3x to post, that easyjet switzerland could make good business with zrh, but none of the comments was published.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No comments have been deleted. I have no record you sent any comment...

      Delete

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