The Macedonian Ministry for Transport and Communications is set to soon announce the list of airlines that responded to the recent public call for establishing flights to Skopje and Ohrid airports in exchange for subsidies. This tender has reportedly attracted the highest level of interest from airlines since the subsidy program began in 2012. Previously, all public calls were won by Wizz Air, with Lufthansa also receiving funds in the most recent round last year. The new three-year subsidy program will run from January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2027, and, unlike the past twelve years, it was open to all international destinations, not limited to European carriers and routes.
The Macedonian government has already hinted at some of the upcoming developments. Flights between Dubai and Skopje are expected to be restored next year following a five-year hiatus, while services between Istanbul and Ohrid are anticipated to be launched as well. Furthermore, the Macedonian Minister for Transport and Communications, Aleksandar Nikoloski, recently held talks with both the Spanish and Czech ambassadors over the introduction of flights. The operator of Skopje and Ohrid airports, TAV Macedonia, has earmarked the resumption of services between the country’s capital and Barcelona as a priority. Flights between the two cities were last maintained by Wizz Air in January 2022.
Wizz Air is also believed to have participated in the recent tender. The airline has been facing ongoing engine issues impacting its fleet, leading to a reduction in services from its Skopje base. Despite winning the previous public call, the low cost carrier failed to fulfill its commitments, launching only two out of the four planned routes. It did not commence planned operations from Skopje to Stuttgart and Luxembourg. Over the past few years, Wizz Air has discontinued several routes it operated from the Macedonian capital prior to the pandemic, including Vaxjo, Turku, Larnaca, Hannover, and Barcelona. The airline has also ceased operations from Ohrid to Basel, London Luton, Milan Malpensa, and Malmo.
Completely forgot Wizz Air used to fly Skopje-Larnaca. Wonder if there is a chance that route comes back.
ReplyDeleteLarnaca is served seasonaly from another airline as a charter flights.
DeleteWhich airline flies charters to Larnaca?
Delete@09:10 It’s BH Air, I believe. But they were running seasonal charters only
DeleteThanks. Did they operate this year?
DeleteNo
DeleteLast year they operate , for this one I am not sure.
DeleteThey didnt operate this year. Last summer flights were operated every Tuesday. This year that travel agency offered Cyprus but with transport to Solun and flight from there.
DeleteLarnaca deserves to return. I flew from Thessaloniki twice and there were a lot of Macedonians on both flights.
DeleteI really hope the government is not hyping this up for nothing.
ReplyDeleteNo it is true , there is huge interest from companies that never flown to Macedonia before ....
DeleteGood!
Delete@9.02 my thoughts too
DeleteOhrid airport needs to lower the taxes like tirana airport did
DeleteTo expensive the taxes for airlines in shkup and ohër
My guesses:
ReplyDeleteWizz Air: Skopje - Prague, Barcelona, Salerno; Ohrid – Basel, Milan MXP (or Rome)
Eurowings: Skopje – Stuttgart and Dusseldorf
Lufthansa: Skopje - Munich
Flydubai: Skopje - Dubai
AJet: Ohrid – Istanbul
Salerno?? You probs meant Girona, or...?
DeleteI think there is a bigger chance Vueling starts flights from Barcelona than Wizz Air. We will see.
DeleteList seems likely. As someone said maybe it is Vueling from Barcelona rather than Wizz.
DeleteHe meant Salerno. If you don't know where is it, Google knows. Don't live under the stone in 2024.
DeleteWhy so aggressive?
DeleteSkopje-Salerno yeah sure 🤣 3 daily I presume?
Deleteah the smiley h8ter again. even more stupid post than your "Skopje - Ohrid maybe 🤣" from the last article
DeleteBased on the tender, do the routes have to be year round or they can be seasonal too?
ReplyDeleteThey can be seasonal
DeleteI think they will be all year round and the goal is getting connections to main hubs. Possible OHD to get some seasonal ...
Delete@9.11 no they cannot stop lying
DeleteIt will be good actually Lufthansa to open up Munich as well
ReplyDeleteI think there is a high chance of that happening.
DeleteEither they ot Eurowings definitly we need Munich.
DeleteIf Munich starts it's going to be Lufthansa. Eurowings only flies domestic route from Munich, exception are Palma and Pristina (Pristina is on behalf of their weird tour operators)
DeleteWhy weird?
DeleteOnly place in the 21st century where tour operators rule the market, and many of them are in the business of money laundering.
DeleteWould be nice to see Iberia in SKP
ReplyDeleteIberia wants to fly to SKP even since the tender , so I think for them this was good chance to get money to start flying...
DeleteIf Iberia starts I think it will be very similar to Ljubljana. One-two flight per week for a few weeks in July or August.
DeleteCould be but I think even that would be a good start. They were quite interested after they operated some charters to SKP this year.
DeleteThe problem is that MAD has limited chance of sucsses. Barcelona would be successful but Iberia does not fly international from BCN.
DeleteYeah IB would only happen if it’s MAD. If it’s BCN it would be W6 or Vueling
Delete@9.21 source trust me bro!!. Iberia will have 2 charters again on behalf of a spanish travel agency and thats it
DeleteHas Wizz Air been penalized in some way for not meeting the obligations of its previous contract?
ReplyDeleteOf course not
DeleteNo because it is global engine problem , and they have good reason for that , it is not related to the company , so you cannot giwe them eny penalties.
DeleteThey probably have some clause in their contract that you can't penalize them for events outside of their control.
DeleteIn additonal they will add some aircraft plus after the issue is solved .... probably they have some compromis with TAV and the government
DeleteBollocks. They still have 150 aircraft (plus a lot of wet-leases) flying. It was purely their decision to cut routes where they had contractual obligation to fly (and they got money for that). They could easily continue every SKP routes if they wanted to.
DeleteWizz cuts in Ohrid have been brutal. Hoping OHD gets some traffic from this tender too. And not just to Istanbul.
ReplyDeleteOHD will get more flights next year for sure , some will be W6 some charters.
DeleteHope it is Flydubai from Dubai and not something like Air Arabia from Sharjah or Wizz Abu Dhabi from Abu Dhabi. We need connectivity.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely Flydubai from Dubai.
DeleteWhat about QR. Are they at all interested at coming back to SKP? Such a shame if not. They really are the best airline.
ReplyDeleteIt has been mentioned many times that they have a shortage of narrow body aircraft. Some might become available as they are shifting some European flights operated with narrow bodies to wide bodies but I don't think SKP is a priority for them at the moment.
DeleteSeeing Amsterdam, Dubai, Munich (could be launchen by Eurowings as well) and Paris would be great. Also more seasonal routes from Skopje and especially Ohrid would be nice.
ReplyDeleteBUT announcement is one thing, actually launching is anohter thing (see WizzAir Stuttgart and Luxembourg).
+1
Deleteseasonal routes not happening
DeleteIf seasonal is not happening they I am not expecting many new routes from Ohrid.
Deletesame here, a missed opportunity in my opinion. You never know but its clearly stated that sub. routes must be flown in both seasons at least twice weekly
DeleteThere are some rumors the tender results may be announced today.
ReplyDeleteProbably reason why article was published.
DeleteAt the beginning of this summer I think in June, Iberia had one charter flight from Madrid. Ever since they have interest in connecting the two capitals.
DeleteWill they announce today?
Deletewow why was an Iberia A330 in Skopje? (talking about the pic). This was pre Covid since Flydubai is also there.
ReplyDeleteI think Real Madrid was playing in Skopje or something like that. It was a sports charter.
DeleteIt was for the UEFA Super Cup Final in 2017
DeleteNono, it came this Summer. Weird 1-time charter flight from Madrid.
DeleteNo, the charter this summer was with A320neo. Plus next to it is a FlyDubai B738. This is from 2017 begining of August.
DeleteWonder if Aegean applied with some new routes :D Maybe Podgorica
ReplyDeleteWould there be any point in SKG-SKP flights maybe? Or it's too close?
DeleteIt is too close , its just 1.5 hour drive. Doesnt make any sense. Sofia was not an option even its around 3.5-4 hours drive.
DeleteIt's not really a 1.5 hour drive, its more of a 3 hours drive depending from where you're in Skopje, and those 3 hours are without delay at the border. If there is a line, it will be more, but again I don't think people want to use a plane to go to Thessaloniki, although with the metro starting to operate there it might be actually wiser, but most of the people are going there for a weekend or even for a day.
DeleteThe delay on border is just in summer pick season , other then that I pass the border for 1 min and from Kavadarci I am at the airport max 2 hours.
DeleteOne thing is from Kavadarci, another thing is from Skopje :) And even from Kavadarci if you go during the day nowadays and head to the airport, you might get stuck at the road around Thessaloniki where the construction is happening..
Deleteif tehy apply its either Podgorica or that one east european capital (not Sofia)
DeleteAdmin I think you might be slightly wrong.
ReplyDeleteWizzAir operated Luxembourg, but it lasted only one month.
Hope they restart the route.
What difference does it make? There were five flights in total.
DeleteWizz Air also operated from Skopje to Billund, Turin.
DeleteI also wonder why they stop flying Louxembourg , is the engine issues or some other factor ?
DeleteWell they discontinued all routes from LUX.
DeleteSo its not only about SKP , thank you.
DeleteCan't wait!
ReplyDeleteThe openings of these tenders used to be public once upon a time. Don't get all the secrecy.
ReplyDeleteAnd before you knew the only bidder was Wizz Air anyway :D
Delete@9.47 wrong https://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/01/macedonia-to-unveil-airline-subsidy.html
DeleteThat tender was annuled. The only other airline other than Wizz whose bid was accepted was LH, 11 years after first tender. And even that was done contrary to tender rules as route was already announced and scheduled. But since it is a German company in the Balkans no rules apply to them.
Delete"contrary to tender rules" only in your world. tender rule was (like this one) the route must not been operated in the last two seasons and FRA wasnt.... nice try
DeleteBCN has to be one of them. TAV has been talking about Spain a lot and it would make sense, probably successful most year round
ReplyDeleteBut the question is why was it suspended in the first place? Couldn't Wizz make it work?
DeleteIt was suspended because the number of tourists drasticly decreased in Macedonia after the pandemic. This route was mostly used by tourists coming to Macedonia, not by macedonians going to BCN. Thats why Wizz stopped it in 2022, there were still restrictions back then and the global tourism had decreased.
Deletehow about Ryanair entering the market, chances equals to zero? :)
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately very low chance
DeleteI think no , but lets see , maybe it will be surprise :)
DeleteLOT, SAS, Lufthansa, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic... are all suspending flights to China. Now it's time to get flights from SKP to PVG or PEK or maybe both?
ReplyDeleteAre you for real?
Deletehe is trolling you
DeleteWhen is the announcement happening? How?
ReplyDeleteShould be later this day , around afternoon or after on press in the government.
Deletewill there be a press at all?
DeleteYes probably usually there is a press for things like this , but for now still nothing.
DeleteI really hope that at least half of the routes are not by Wizz Air. Wizz will announce them yes but if they ever start them is a different think just like another anon said above. Its a shame if they get subsidies for routes that they already operated, such as SKP-BCN or OHD-BSL which in 2019 was five times per week. I think we will get Iberia tho.
ReplyDelete1 tender and they have better results than ljubljana will have in 7 xD
ReplyDeletehold on, its only rumpurs for now
DeleteI think Ohrid Malmo should be there
ReplyDeleteIt would be good if the line from Hanover to Skopje was restarted.
ReplyDeleteis this pic a hint?
ReplyDeletetired of waiting for this all week, it takes 5min to announce who applied ...
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming there are over 30 new flights and it takes some time to write the announcement :)
Deleteke bide rezil ako nisto ne iskoci od ova
DeleteJa precenivme javnata administracija. Spoen e prodolzen vikend uste od vcera popladne, taka sto tek od sledna nedela mozeme da se nadevame na povekje informacii.
Delete3 MILLION PASSENGERS A YEAR WITH A SUBSIDY OF 13 EUROS PER PASSENGER THAT IS 39 MILLION EUROS IN FOREIGN HANDS A GIFT FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF MACEDONIA. Macedonian aero - clubs have been without state support since 2017. Macedonian police and army receive 0 euro subsidy and air traffic control receives no money from the government. The government should give money to these Macedonian state companies.
ReplyDeleteit's the same for you if your son asks you for money and you don't give it to him and give it to some foreigner. Wrong policy.
What the heck? Where did u learn that the government is subsiding for every single passenger handled? Can u inform yourself better before writing such nonsense? The subsidies are offered for the passengers that will be handled on the NEW routes that will be opened thanks to this tender. So if one route is opened from the tender and operated twice a week with a plane of 200 seats capacity, that is around 50K euros per month, or 500k euros for one year, not 39 millions. Gosh! You are even mentioning the police which is full of money by the people who give them 50 euros instead of paying the ticket they got? Ridicilous!
Deleteso typical for this gov: pompezni najavi
ReplyDeleteSo no announcement?
ReplyDelete