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.