European flights to Skopje.

Does anyone know the reason why Macedonia does not have cheap interconnecting flights to other european destinations? They don't even need to be direct, at least something that passes through Vienna, Budapest, Zurich, Frankfurt etc. The options seem to be x-times more expensive than other nearby destinations.

I understand one reason is that there is less traffic entering Macedonia due to less tourists, but surely the price difference isn't that huge.

Does this have anything to do with taxes and fees that Macedonia may charge on passengers or airlines for landing in Skopje?

I'm also wondering if Macedonia is planning to pursue becoming a regional air-hub similar to Budapest, Zurich etc. but for the Balkans.

It would have been much cheaper for me if those sort of lines existed, its not about the money that i payed, its the fact that Macedonia has such potential to be such a hot tourist spot, its shits so much that this potential is not being implemented.

First thing that should be done is to have more airlines going thru Macedonia.(perhaps the current airport is not capable of handling more flights, hopefully this would improve with the new airport being built) How can you get tourists (apart from Serbs) to come when you cant even get to Macedonia relatively quick even though is so close to other European countries. While if you plan to drive thru Macedonia and you need to go to the airport, you need to have ur eyes pealed for an airport road sign fucken smaller then a computer screen even the MK taxi had a hard time finding it. It is small things like this that leave a bad impression for ppl going thu macedonia, (non-macedonian). The road to Skopje (apart the newly built section) being a capital city is a joke. I don't mean to sound like a bigot but fuck, Macedonian are not dumb and know what needs to be done, its shits me the mentality that Macedonian posses, i.e someone else should do it. Some things that need to be fixed don't have to be expensive and are very doable, its the mentality of the ppl that is harder to change.

my 2 cents, I am in a shitty mood today :P

Here are some tenders for Zagreb's new passenger terminal. They look brilliant.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=720150

One post in the thread got me thinking. They said that there is a regional race between Belgrade and Zagreb as to who will be the regional hub. I wonder if Macedonia will enter the race.

The expansion of Zagreb is set to be able to handle 5 million passengers yearly. It also looks like they have over 12 passenger bridges. As a guide, Skopje's new terminal will have 6.

I hope that there has been room for expansion in Skopje, because if it is going to catch up with other regional airports and exceed them, we will need further expansions.

Here is how we compare in yearly passenger numbers (roughly speaking)

Istanbul 29.76 million
Athens 16.22 million
Solun 4 million
Sofia 3.13 million
Belgrade 2.38 million
Zagreb 2.06 million
Tirana 1.4 million
Pristina 1.19 million
Skopje 0.65 million

Well, it seems that Macedonia has a lot of work to do to catch up. Even Pristina is processing more passengers and that place isn't even recognised. I heard in a news report that TAV is expecting passenger numbers to increase tenfold. That would place Skopje 3rd after Istanbul and Athens, which is a big call. Given the numbers we're talking about i'm a little dubious that that will happen.

Then again, the fact that TAV would be managing both Istanbul and Skopje, it might allow for some good airline deals to take place, sharing load between Istanbul and Skopje.

Does anyone know more about this? It's the first time i've really looked at the numbers.

another key point to add here is that the Balkans could really do with some high speed rail between capitals... just sayin'

The roads in Macedonia are not that bad. After traveling flat out from city to city all over Macedonia i pretty much get the idea of their state. The highway from Bitola to Voden is exactly the same as the highways in Macedonia. Only gets better once you pass Voden.

The worst is the Ohrid to Bitola stretch. Otherwise, the only major problem i see is the lack of overtaking lanes. Once you're caught behind a semi-trailer with a full load, you're not going anywhere for a few kilometers.

What's the bet Istanbul-Skopje will become a route, saving people the hassle of having to go Istanbul-Belgrade-Skopje.

a rail route from Istanbul to Skopje?

An air route. It will save at least three hours.

Turkish Airlines already fly the Ankara-Skopje and the Istanbul-Skopje routes.

The return trip costs about EU250 - EU300.


Macedonian needs Dubai-Skopje and Singapore-Skopje routes as well as [Every Major European Capital] - Skopje routes.

Depends who you fly with, Turkish Airlines has a direct flight from Istanbul-Skopje. I guess Dubai-Istanbul-Skopje is not so bad either.

Rogi, There is a flight Skopje-Dubai but its a charter flight, usually for the holiday season.

I'm talking about having a regular flight for an A380 or a 747 flying Dubai-Skopje (or perhaps Abu Dhabi - Skopje) and/or Singapore-Skopje, so that those flight can then be used as the connecting flights for travel from those regions to any European (or Eastern European, or South-Eastern European) location, or vice versa.

If there were routes from SE asian transit destinations such as Singapore, Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur to Skopje it could serve as a continental hub in the same way that major air hubs operate in europe. Given that there are so many similar transit hubs such as Zurich, London and Frankfurt, the major competition will be based on price and service. If it happens that Macedonian airport taxes are reduced low enough and the business climate in Macedonia is more attractive to big companies, there might be an influx of airlines using Macedonia as their regional hub to distribute intra-continental flights to smaller euro destinations after landing in Skopje to transfer.

I wonder if Macedonia can use its ties with Kuwait to strike some inter-airport cooperation in the middle east. Perhaps also with Dubai.

I feel obliged to also bring into light the state of Macedonia's national carrier, though I don't think there will be much good news. I believe it is being rebranded as "Aeromak". Any developments?

Bushav, Rogi,

Now that Turkish TAV is making a steady profit, do you think they will spend more of their funds in Macedonia and Latvia?

TAV Doubles Sales-Growth Goal to More Than 20% on Ground-Handling Units



TAV Havalimanlari Holding AS, Turkey’s largest airport operator, more than doubled its sales- growth target as increased traffic and acquisitions helped ground-services revenue rise.


Euro-denominated sales will probably increase by more than 20 percent in 2010, compared with a growth forecast at the beginning of the year of 10 percent, Chief Executive Officer Sani Sener told reporters in Istanbul late yesterday.

TAV runs 10 airports, with four in Turkey including Istanbul’s Ataturk, the country’s busiest, and others in Georgia, Tunisia and Macedonia. It also provides catering services and duty-free shops. TAV’s Havas division bought a stake in Turkish Airlines’ ground-handling unit last year and agreed in April to buy half of a similar business in Latvia.

Sener reiterated a target of increasing group passenger numbers this year by 10 percent from about 42 million travelers in 2009, with traffic increasing to 100 million passengers by 2020. TAV’s airports served 21.3 million passengers in the first six months of 2010, a 13 percent increase from a year earlier.

First-half net income was 8.5 million euros ($11 million), compared with a loss of 2.1 million euros a year earlier, while sales increased 25 percent to 351 million euros, the Istanbul- based company said yesterday.

TAV declined as much as 10 kurus, or 1.5 percent, to 6.60 liras and was down 0.8 percent as of 12:29 p.m. in Istanbul trading. The stock has risen 40 percent this year.


Acquisitions by Havas
The Havas ground-handling brand acquired 50 percent of Turkish Airlines’ TGS unit in December, adding access to five airports in the country. Havas agreed in April to buy half of North Hub Services, the ground handler of Latvia’s SJSC Riga international airport, for 3.25 million euros.

North Hub Services, which also operates in Helsinki, will start services in the Estonian capital of Tallinn in October, Stockholm and the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius in 2011 and Copenhagen in 2012, Sener said.

“We are very serious about making Riga a hub for northern Europe and Istanbul for Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa,” he said.

TAV plans to sell shares in Havas through an initial public offering in 2011, Sener said. The division’s partners, which include HSBC Holdings Plc with 28.3 percent and Turkey’s Is Girisim Sermayesi Yatirim Ortakligi AS with 6.7 percent, have all agreed to some of their Havas holdings in the IPO, he said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-1 ... units.html

All that will only happen when the airport redevelopment is completed.

I thought Skywings was the new national carrier?

hmm.. had a look at Skywings and something caught my attention. The order of languages listed is English, Albanian THEN Macedonian.

http://www.skywings.info

There is none at the moment, the new MAT Kontiki is there but they only have two planes so far they are stationed in Belgrade.

Bushav, Whats your opinion on TAV? They are saying that by the end of next year both airports have to be completed.

Their track record seems to be good Prolet, so i'm confident that they'll run the airports smoothly and hopefully help to forge some good deals with international carriers.

Here's some more information on Skywings. http://exyuaviation.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... -flag.html

When i was at the airport, they had already started to build a structure next to the existing building. I don't know what exactly it is.