TAV Macedonia, the operator of Skopje and Ohrid airports, is focusing on attracting additional legacy and leisure carriers to launch services to the country this year. Speaking to the “Bloomberg Adria” network, CEO Nejat Kurt said the company is seeking to achieve a more balanced airline mix across its two airports. “We have substantial low cost traffic, accounting for 60% of our operations. We are focusing a little bit more on leisure and legacy carriers. Overall, we are trying to balance it out. There are certain goals we want to reach this year. There are new marketing strategies in place, and we would like to make a difference this year”.
Mr Kurt noted that additional new routes are expected to be announced in 2026, on top of the existing three from Skopje, to Naples and Budapest by Wizz Air and Bodrum by AJet, which have already been scheduled. “2026 will be a promising year. We will be focusing on growth and increasing traffic even more. We expect substantial growth until the end of the year. We also expect new destinations. Once we have the agreements in place with airlines, we will make the announcements soon enough. I would like to thank the airlines for their commitment to increase traffic to Skopje. We are confident we will add some more diversity to the current destinations we have at Skopje”.
Skopje Airport is anticipating record growth, driven by Wizz Air’s network expansion late last year and a significant increase in frequencies on several existing routes this summer. Based on preliminary figures and current schedules, which remain subject to change, Skopje Airport has 3.029.345 seats available on scheduled services for the 2026 summer season, running from March 29 to October 25. This represents a 28.2% increase on the previous summer, or a significant additional 665.712 seats. Growth is also expected in Ohrid, where Wizz Air will introduce four new routes, while Austrian Airlines will commence services from Vienna. Overall, Ohrid currently has just over 300.000 seats available on scheduled flights for the summer, marking a 33.4% increase, or an additional 79.000 seats compared to last year.
Would be great to see Air France, BA or even Iberia at SKP.
ReplyDeleteI think you are getting ahead of yourself with those picks.
DeleteI do not think BA is looking to enter the North Macedonian market. It hasnt made Belgrade work, let alone Skopje.
DeleteAnd the ZAG route is not working out either going to seasonal. So I doubt we will see them in SKP.
DeleteSKP offers subsidises so it could happen.
Delete@10:23 no it could not. Its very low yield route which BA wouldn't make pay.
DeleteBA was present before the 2001 war. Also Lufthansa (now restored) and Alitalia. Not sure about Air France. But all of them have significantly changed their strategy since then.
Deletewhile i dont think BA is that likely there is little competition at SKP when it comes to the UK market. its Wizz and TUI
Delete@13:23 that was a very different aviation landscape. Which cannot be compared to now. BA will not use slots for Skopje thats for sure.
DeleteVery impressive growth figures for Skopje.
ReplyDeleteThe real question is whether this growth is sustainable or still too dependent on Wizz Air. Sixty percent low-cost share is quite high. Diversification is definitely needed.
ReplyDeleteGrowth of course will stall. The focus on keeping routes and making a good inboud tourist offering is vital.
DeleteEvery airport in Europe is dependend on low cost airline, exepct the huge hubs that have their own flag carriers. Which country in Europe is not dependend either Wizz or Ryanair or Easyjet ,Vueling , Volotea and etc .... ??? It is not only Macedonia my friend
DeleteFew capital city airports in Europe are dependant on one LCC for 70% of their passengers.
Delete@17.30 and?
DeleteWell they are making the point that N.Macedonia is particuarly exposed to single-airline dependency.
DeleteIf they are serious about legacy carriers, maybe we could see Lufthansa Group expansion or even Turkish Airlines adding more frequencies. That would improve connectivity beyond point-to-point traffic.
ReplyDeleteBalanced airline mix is easier said than done. Legacy carriers look at yields and corporate demand, and that market in North Macedonia is still limited.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteSkopje has quietly become one of the faster growing airports in the region. If this growth continues it could overtake some larger regional competitors in a few years.
ReplyDeleteYou mean Prishtina? Which is its own competition? Will take a while
DeleteWith 7th A321neo of Wizz coming in July we will see.
DeleteThe point is to grow and getting new routes and airlines and more choices for travellers, it is not poing who we will overtake or not, numbers are just numbers, we need flights and options!!!
DeleteExactly. Its not actually a competition even if in regions airports might 'compete' for passengers.
DeleteWe are happy with what Wizz has to offer, but of course some diversification is needed.
ReplyDeleteAs a Macedonian, I can say that the situation in the country is very depressive for few years now, I would say after the change of the name and all the false promises made to the country.
No real EU integration talks, corruption is high in all the ruling parties and at the end that hurts the economy and potential new investments, and people are used to the ship moving nowhere for a very long time now.
Heck, even Dubai is not working from Skopje, few attempts were made but the market can't sustain 2 or 3 flights a week throughout whole year.
Until the county will not make some move in the EU integration the situation will be 'skini-vrzi' without a proper plan.
Ohrid on the other side, has a great potential, but it also needs a major plan to attract some high end hotel luxury brand, to renovate some of the hotels from Tito and change from a cheap place where the youngsters from UK are coming to get drunk to something better
+100
Deleteyou mean youngsters from Serbia?
Delete@9.22 cry me a river.
Deletesame situation everywhere in East Europe bro
Reaching a true balance won’t be easy. Legacy airlines need business demand and stronger corporate presence.
ReplyDeleteAnd the market is, after all, not very large.
DeleteI’m curious which “new destinations” they are hinting at. Western Europe? Scandinavia? Maybe something in the Middle East?
ReplyDeleteTurkish to New York and Toronto 🤣 There were people here explaining those are just about to start from Shkup 🤣
Deletewell at least now we know where the smiley troll comes from
DeleteWhat does Shkup mean?
DeleteAs far as I know, Albanian is official language in Macedonia, and Shkup is one of the official names of the capital city. Maybe you can explain why you have problem with it and why people using it should be called trolls.
DeleteAlbanian is not official language in Macedonia , it is recognize only in the parts of cities where majority of the people are Albanians , not the all country. Dont just write non sense comment. Serbian,Bosnian,Turkish, Gipsy all this languages are recognized in Macedinia, it is multi cultural cluntry.Official name of the capital city is Skopje translated in Albanian is Shkup or Turkish Uskup ;)
DeleteFollowing legislative changes in 2018, Albanian language in Macedonia became co-official language AT NATIONAL LEVEL. So, please, do not lie simultaneously accusing me of writing nonsense. And get over nationalism, that's what brought us to the bottom of Europe, from Jesenice to Gevgelija
Delete@17.32 accusing others for nationalism but yourself not using the international name of the city is the biggest oxymoron ever.
Deletethats the way you react to every positive article about the airport on this website - with stupid and unnecessary provocation. not for the first time
These are impressive numbers
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteDiversification is crucial in SKP's case.
ReplyDeletetwo more turkish destinations are coming for the summer season
ReplyDeleteExample which ones ?
Deletefirst thing what TAV should do is to lower fees
ReplyDeleteMUC, DUS and CPH are strangely missing from SKP's network
ReplyDeleteI'm genuinely curious, is CPH coming back this summer season or not? I've seen people with 'insider info' hint at it a lot in the past months here, but nothing is getting announced yet. So is it happening or not?
Deletethere is nobody here with insider news to tell you such things.
DeleteCPH is officially targeted by gov/airport to bring it back and thats been also reported on this page. Everything else is ЧАРШИСКИ МУАБЕТИ
Copenhagen will happend this year for sure , it is strongly demand route ...
DeleteMMX will become a daily service from July 15th, not sure if that compromises the return of CPH...
Delete17.33 had the same thought
Delete@17:18 just get the bus over the bridge from Malmo.
DeleteWould be nice to have KLM in Skopje and Edelweiss to increase its frequencies.
ReplyDeleteEdelweiss has the same freq from SKP and OHD in summer, 3 weekly from SKP is bizzarely low. Guess they are just maintaining a min presence
Deletewith such a big diaspora they could go daily liek nothing
Again KLM is a very unlikely candidate for Skopje given the restrictions in Schiphol.
DeleteDon't forget you have Wizz from Basel and Chair from Zurich, so Edelweiss is flying quite empty outside of summer season (in my own experience). I don't see them grow frequencies for now but keeping as it is would be good.
DeleteI think Edelweis has 4 weekly flights. Also, they have a direct competition from Chair. Think they fly daily
DeleteWizz Air is deploying 7th A321neo in SKP btw on 15 July. Many routes will be increased, including LJU to 5x, Malmo to daily, TSF to 3x and so on. With 7 A321neos they will offer 5400 seats per day in one direction which is almost double compared to last summer when they had 5 A320s and offers 2700seats per day in one direction. 22 departures per day are planned only by Wizz in July.
ReplyDeletegood find
DeleteI think this is just Wizz air begining the new era in their Skopje base , they are inceasing, of fourse waiting for new announce routes, add more planes
DeleteOd kade vi e informacijata za sedmiot avion vo bazata?
ReplyDeletemozda e veke vo sistemot?
DeleteNo one writes in the system how many planes are based at an airport. The frrquency increases are all based on existing aircraft.
Delete@14.29 LMAO
Deletejust check the first departure wave in the morning and you know how many airplanes are stationed
Wizz Air also uses planes from other bases.
DeleteThere are 7 morning departures staring mid July. Check all of the flights on Mondays, there are 22 one way. Yes Larnaca and London are operated from those two bases but both of those arrivals are at night.
Deleteyeh and? you can stil distinguish, gosh
Delete@14:42 & 14:29 Yeah Stockholm, Malmo, Berlin, Basel, Karlsruhe, Ljubljana, Treviso are all gonna be from other bases for sure. There are 7 morning departures which means 7 planes are based. On other days of the week there are less flights which means that new routes will be opened.
Deletei somehow expect a new destination now if its true.
Deleteomg CPH?
DeleteThey already have an additional plane compared to last summer which is why there are extra flights
DeleteWhy dont u just go and check instead of trying to be the right? Yes with the 6th jet already deployed GOT is increased on 4 weekly, MMX was on 5 weekly, NUE on theee weekly, FKB on four weekly, HAM on four weekly, Bergamo on 4 weekly, BCN on three weekly plus they are launching BUD and NAP.
DeleteThere you go:
DeleteCRL 06:00
BSL 06:30
BER 06:15
DTM 05:30
FMM 07:00
MMX 07:15
ARN 05:45
CRL is also increased as well as DTM to 10 times per week.
Deletewow! i fala sto imas zivci da mu objasnuvas :)
Deleteeven if it looks that its only for peak summer its a briliant development
Delete@15:02 pa ljubomorni ste sto rastat letovite. Mene ne mi e milo so poise letovi ke ima Wizz, treba da ima konkurencija so druga kompanija ne monopol, bashka shto se ponashaat uzhasno kon svoite vraboteni i se drugo ama realnata slika e deka nosat 7mi avion nema da lazam neam druga rabota.
DeleteOd letovite koi startuvaa 2025, ima li nekoja promena vo plus ili minus na letovi? Osven lyon koj e otkazan
DeleteNema pogolemi promeni od tie letovi 2025 osven Lyon , no da letoto ke ima zgolemuvanje na frekfenciite na nekolku letovi
DeleteBCN е три пати седмично,
DeleteOhrid deserves much more love during the summer...
ReplyDeleteAlso, what happened to the Skopje-Dubai flights?
Nobody talking anything ,the minister last talks was Flydubai is waiting for new aicraft to start flights to SKP and some other routes here in the region , which I think is not true. But from what I know TAV did not giwe the needed certificate for operating to the company, most likely to keep Turkish airlines tranfers to Dubai
Deletegospode boze again you with that nonsence
DeleteOHD-BTS is now 4x weekly
DeleteSkopje needs at least one more legacy airline such as Air france or KLM to Paris CDD or Amsterdam , as well Munich js much needed too. Second what airports currently dont have is Dubai or Doha.. btw huge growth is coming along this year👏
ReplyDelete'Need' and 'able to support' are not the same thing
DeleteSKP & OHD have +31% in January
ReplyDeletei see leissure routes (NCE, VLC, AGP, CTA, PMO) by low cost airlines more realistic than flights with leissure airlines.
ReplyDelete