Skopje Airport eyes new leisure routes, European hubs and Gulf connectivity


Skopje Airport handled over 2.6 million passengers during the January – November period marking its busiest year on record. With figures increasing over 30% year-on-year and up 20% on the pre-pandemic 2019, Skopje has registered one of the highest percentile passenger growth rates among European capital city airports and is expected to continue on the same trajectory into 2024. The General Manager of airport operator TAV Macedonia, Nejat Kurt, spoke to EX-YU Aviation News about Skopje’s strong year, route development plans for 2024 and upcoming infrastructure projects.

Skopje Airport has witnessed strong growth this year. What has been the main reason for such a robust recovery? Is it being driven by your traditional routes, new services, or growth in leisure traffic?

The strong recovery that Skopje International Airport witnessed this year is a combination of the three reasons you stated - the already established new regular and seasonal routes by new airlines that entered the market; new services; and the growth in leisure air traffic. By the end of 2022, eleven airlines operated to 36 destinations from Skopje Airport, and today, with the 2023 winter timetable, fourteen airlines operate to 41 destinations. This is the result of the introduction of new airlines, new routes, and an increase in frequencies during 2023.

Lufthansa and Norwegian entered the Macedonian market by introducing new routes to Frankfurt and Oslo, respectively. Then, Croatia Airlines, in addition to its flights to Zagreb, added a new seasonal route to Split, and Aegean Airlines launched a new route to Sarajevo. SunExpress converted its seasonal flights to Izmir and Antalya to a year-round service. Wizz Air, in addition to basing its sixth aircraft at its Skopje Airport base, and increasing frequencies on nine routes, also introduced the highly anticipated service to Ljubljana.

Furthermore, in terms of the increase in air traffic, especially leisure traffic, passenger numbers say it all. Both airports, Skopje and Ohrid, handled a total of 2.4 million passengers between January and September in 2023, and the total number of passengers in 2022 for both airports stood at 2.4 million, which is a 30% increase. Now, during the month of December, we are happy and proud to say that we have reached three million passengers at both airports by December 16, which is a milestone as it is the first time we managed to do so in a single year.

The annual passenger increase is 32% compared to 2022, and compared to 2019, there is an almost 20% increase. If we look back at 2010 and 2011, when TAV Airports took over operations and started to manage Macedonian airports, the total number was around 600 - 650.000 passengers, while today's digits show a fivefold increase.

Lufthansa launched flights to Skopje this year, are you targeting additional network legacy carriers to introduce flights in the future?

Lufthansa entered the Macedonian market on April 23 with the launch of its new service between Skopje and Frankfurt, offering flights seven days a week, with two daily rotations on some days. This novelty enables passengers traveling to more distant destinations, such as North America, to use Frankfurt Airport and connect onto more than 300 destinations worldwide.

The presence of yet another flag carrier on the Macedonian aviation market adds value for all passengers travelling through Skopje International Airport. However, Skopje also has Aegean Airlines, Air Serbia, Austrian Airlines, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Swiss, and Turkish Airlines, as national airlines or flag carriers, offering connections through their respective hubs. TAV Airports, with its marketing and route development teams, works and implements the best practices and strategies to continually attract new airlines, especially flag carriers that will bring fresh and attractive destinations, as well as cities or airport hubs that will provide extensive opportunities for connecting flights for the convenience of our Skopje Airport passengers.

What geographical areas are of interest for the launch of new routes to Skopje?

The airport operator is actively working on promoting the country at international tourism fairs, route development conferences, and has direct B2B presentations with airlines, and tour operators from various markets. All this is for one main purpose, to attract more airlines and establish operations to more destinations.

Our focus is to develop and establish new routes to leisure destinations such as Spain and Italy. Furthermore, we are working to get Middle Eastern carriers, such as Qatar Airways and Flydubai, to resume their flights to Doha and Dubai, and whenever there is an opportunity, to launch services to new destinations in this region.

Moreover, our plans extend also to launching and introducing flights to new airport hubs, such as London and Munich, so that passengers travelling from our airports have even more options. The airport operator, being part of one of the world’s leading groups, TAV Airports, a member of Groupe ADP, maintains close ties with airlines and uses the advantage of cross-marketing to promote both airports among airlines. Both airports have their incentive program which is crucial in supporting airlines in the opening new routes or increasing frequencies on existing ones.

Could you tell us more about some of the infrastructure projects planned for Skopje Airport in 2024?

The airport operator is always working on improving services and their quality, as well as increasing the airport’s capacity as the passenger numbers are growing year after year (excluding the Covid crisis period). For 2024, given the passenger flow and numbers so far, as well as the strong recovery, we are planning to increase capacity, such as the check-in counters. Currently, there are 23, and the plan is, during 2024, to increase that number to 33.

Additionally, we are planning to improve, or let’s say, upgrade the passenger and cabin baggage security screening equipment, as well as increase the terminal building’s capacity. But we are taking it one step at a time, as the airport is operational, and every project requires precise and meticulous planning and scheduling.

In the second part of the interview, to be published in the coming days, Mr Kurt spoke about Ohrid Airport and its plans.



Comments

  1. Anonymous09:03

    So they want flights to London and Munich. I assume with British Airways and Lufthansa?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:26

      Yes BA for London , and Lufthansa or Discovery for Munich.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:31

      That would be impressive, let's see

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    3. Anonymous11:17

      Yes it is.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous19:21

      I would love to
      See flights betwen ohrid and dubai or ohrid to sharjah next to dubai..why not?!arabs love green nature and lakes and rivers..ohrid is beatifull city to visit.plus they can visit struga and bitola or drive to mavrovo like 1 hour ans 25 min thru debar or dibra

      Delete
    5. Anonymous08:42

      And Abu Dhabi to Ohrid :)

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:04

    Not bad, Spain and Italy, LHR and MUC and return of Middle East carrier.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:05

    Fantastic result

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:19

      Excellent work. That's huge growth.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:20

    The demand for another European hub (FRA) was always there. Great they are looking at similar destinations.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:25

      Wish to see London,Munich,Amsterdam,Cgd ...

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:57

    You still need a Visa for Dubai so that route will be more unlikely, Qatar will be first, they will probably start it at the same time as TIA

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:12

      There used to be flights before when visas werei required as well

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:24

      It is not first time to have Doha and Dubai , that routes was pretty much very good used from SKP , so the visas are not problem,thing is that our diaspora when Covid happend stop coming from Australia and New zealand , now the routes will be recovered again.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:52

      Yeah but many of them came with Turkish this year. When Turkish introduce flights to Australia, even more will use Turkish to come to the Balkans.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:17

      Turkish is two stops though, until they get their longer range aircraft they are at a big disadvantage vs one stop in Dubai or Doha if those routes are relaunched

      Delete
    5. Anonymous12:26

      Even with Turkish Airlines planning direct to Australia, way too many Australians who flew with Turkish this year were saying they wished FZ and QR were back flying. If they do, this at least should give more competition for the Australian dispora.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous10:16

    Nice interview!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous10:48

    I wonder if Aegean will do more with SKP in the future, as in more regional routes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:16

      I hope so!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:18

      well its not a secret which destination they are targeting ;)

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    3. Anonymous11:28

      Which?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14:45

      LJU?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous15:39

      @14.45 no :) Tie od K*rp*š mozebi ke pogodat, megutoa ne pisuvajte ke ve molam ;)

      Delete
    6. Anonymous18:16

      Prague

      Delete
    7. Anonymous18:57

      Ajde tie od Karposh neka se javat da pogodat 😂

      Delete
  8. Anonymous10:49

    easyJet, Transavia, Ryaniar and Eurowings should consider launching new routes from SKP

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous10:54

    Skopje needs more direct flights to London. The three weekly flights of Wizz are almost always full or sold out. I remember they used to fly this route five times a week and with a plane from Skopje but that was before UK exited the EU.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:10

      Skopje needs more Paris flights too, 2 weekly (increased to 3 from March) are definitely not enough

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:21

      We dont know if they will be increased. The network isnt finalised yet.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:06

      Skopje, and Macedonia actually needs visas with UK abolished. Getting a UK visa is a lot harder than USA visa.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous10:55

    "Wizz Air, in addition to basing its sixth aircraft at its Skopje Airport base, and increasing frequencies on nine routes, also introduced the highly anticipated service to Ljubljana."
    Strange. They are talking about high demand to LJU and the service is being reduced from 3 to 2 weekly in summer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:56

      Wizz Air has not even remotely finalised its network for summer.

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    2. Anonymous11:09

      They are far from finalising their summer network. As you can see Ljubljana is the only route which wont be reduced during the february period. Flights are always full. Yesterday over 6600 pax traveled with Wizz to or from Skopje and today over 6k will travel.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:21

      Any numbers on skopje-Ljubljana?

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    4. Anonymous11:26

      yes for Sep and Oct

      Delete
  11. Anonymous11:09

    What sort of leisure destinations could be looking at in Italy?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:09

      i just wanted to ask the same.

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    2. Anonymous11:16

      Sicily, Naples I think the south

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    3. Anonymous11:21

      probably Sicily or Bari, there have been charters in the past to Catania...but i dont think TAV has anything to do with any charters to SKP to be honest. Its solely thanks to the main travel agencies

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:29

      Yeah the increase of the intrest for Tunis is huge. I think we got the first travel tours in 2021 and after two years we have four routes to Tunis. Monstir, Tunis, Djerba and Enfidha.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous11:24

    Thinking that Skopje airport management doing a great job. Am I wrong, but I think that this is a first article in form of interview at exyuAviation?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:25

      no

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:34

      he seems like a cool guy, just seen that 30min tv report on Telma

      Delete
  13. Anonymous11:38

    looks like they will have combined (SKP and OHD) more then 3m for the very first time

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:40

      They already have 3m, its written in the article and was announced by TAV a few days ago. SKP alone will handle 2.8-2.9m pax this year.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:56

      This results are count until 16th december , so 31 december SKP will finish 2.9 m and Ohrid 300k

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:58

      So its more then 3m for both airports.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:00

      If you read the actual interview you will find out they have already jointly surpassed 3 million.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous12:57

      Yes I see the numbers and statistics I mean I check them every single month ...

      Delete
  14. Anonymous11:42

    Have they considered maybe some alternative airlines for Gulf connectivity? Gulf Air, Jazeera, Flynas, Kuwait Airways?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:58

      Early this year the minister for transportation was visiting Abu Dhabi , and also say that they are looking the option for direct flight to both countries.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:00

      Wizz Abu Dhabi most likely

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:01

      Air Arabia is an option too.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:34

      Could be Etihad, still no ME route from Australia and no one wants to fly a LCC as part of such a long journey. Not sure if there is enough P2P demand for Wizz Abu Dhabi.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous12:58

      Maybe he was thinking for Wiz Abu dhabi or possible Etihad , well see , I think 2024 will be full of surprises for SKP.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous16:59

    It's good to hear that the passenger count has increased.

    Hopefully they will increase the frequency of the bus shuttle to the airport and reduce the 3-4 or even 5 hour waiting time for each bus. It would be naive to expect growth with a low amount public transport options.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous18:01

      nor is your statement about the waiting times true (its a blatant lie) nor does the public transport options affect SKP's pax numbers (actually it doesnt affect them at all it seems)

      Delete
    2. Anonymous18:18

      The shuttle bus time is pretty much ok , in future we hope to see crack from the rail station.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:58

      Not again the same person with the bus stuff. Aman vishe choveku

      Delete
    4. Anonymous23:16

      8 buses per day as daily transport is simply unacceptable for a 3 million airport. What a shame. Only 8 or approx. 1 bus every 3-4 hours.......

      Delete
    5. Anonymous12:19

      @23.16 aha ok

      Delete
  16. Anonymous18:25

    Is it possible we see Barcelona with Wizz , Madrid with Iberia , Munich with Euro wings , BA with London , but not sure about Italy .... And of course Doha and Dubai. And maybe some other destination that he didnt mention.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19:17

      I’m doubtful when it comes to Iberia and British Airways. Munich with Eurowings might materialize, I’d rather see Ryanair to Barcelona + Italian routes, maybe Paphos to replace the former Larnaca route and Helsinki replacing Vaxjo.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous13:21

    The Australian government already approved 21 weekly flights for Turkish Airlines with 5th freedom rights from any asian stop over , flights will start early March 2024 , still unknown as first destination at this stage is it going to be Syd or Mel first . TK already scheduled additional flight to SIN which will continue to Australia departing Istanbul from 4pm . Me personally , I prefer TK to travel to SKP but looks like TK needs to amend the schedule or introduce third daily flight with 1pm departure from SKP at least 3 times per week for Australia bound passengers . Can't wait to see the schedule.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous03:55

      2 stops is rubbish. Once they have the ULR jets allowing one stop then it will be good.

      Delete

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