Skopje Airport anticipates handling over three million passengers this year, despite its largest carrier, Wizz Air, significantly reducing operations over the summer due to engine issues affecting a notable number of its aircraft. Macedonia’s Minister for Transport and Communications, Blagoj Bochvarski, said, “We expect for last year’s growth trend to continue and for figures to surpass that of 2023. Our expectations are for Skopje Airport to handle over three million passengers alone this year”. In 2023, Skopje Airport welcomed a record 2.883.474 travellers. January started off strongly with a notable 50.5% year-on-year increase. February results are expected to deliver another strong performance.
Outside of the airport’s control are ongoing issues facing Wizz Air, which has been forced to ground over forty aircraft in its fleet in order to carry out checks on Pratt & Whitney-manufactured engines. This has forced the low cost airline to significantly reduce summer operations across its network, with Skopje, where it held an over 60% passenger share last year, being no exception. This summer season, from March 31 until October 26, Skopje Airport will see 2.082.222 seats on scheduled services. This is down 6.5% on the summer of 2023 and is a direct result of Wizz Air’s ongoing engine troubles. Despite the airline reducing frequencies on a number of its Skopje services, it will go ahead with the launch of its planned new route between the Macedonian capital and Salzburg on April 1.
Airport operator TAV Macedonia is negotiating for the introduction of new routes. “We are in negotiations for new destinations. In the coming period, we will launch a new service to Riga, and we are also in talks with other airlines for new routes, but it is still too early to say which”, Vladimir Gramatikov, TAV Macedonia’s Marketing Development and Revenue Director, told “Bloomberg Adria”. He added, “We are working on bringing new tour operators and new charter flights, but of course also scheduled services that will connect us throughout the year. We are working hard to link Ohrid with Turkey. The most frequently asked question is why we don’t have flights to Spain. For the Spaniards, we are not a traditional market, and it is very difficult to convince an airline to start flying to Macedonia from Spain”.
Mr Gramatikov pointed out that competition among Europe’s airports for new airlines and customers is rife. However, he noted that the entire tourism industry in the country is involved in the opening of new routes, including tour operators, the business sector, and sometimes even local governments. He added that embassies too often take part in the process of convincing airlines in launching new services. Apart from Wizz Air’s new Salzburg route, this summer will see airBaltic inaugurate seasonal summer operations between Riga and Skopje, while Pegasus Airlines will commence scheduled flights from Antalya to the Macedonian capital.
