LazialeMKD From Macedonia, joined Oct 2009, 143 posts, RR: 0 Posted (1 year 8 months 3 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 2018 times:
Hello everyone -
Just to share news with you that a brand new terminal will be opening today at Alexander the Great Airport in Skopje, Macedonia.
Once the terminal is open it will be the most modern terminal at the Balkan's peninsula.
You can find some info over here
in English http://bit.ly/q7PbGd
SASMD82 From Netherlands, joined Mar 2007, 549 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (1 year 8 months 3 weeks 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 1964 times:
Congratulations for Macedonia and Skopje! Hopefully traffic will now augment!
Slightly off the topic but what is 'wrong' with the aviation in the republics of the former Yugoslavia? The airlines that operate in these states are all very small and the large low-cost carriers have hardly added any destinations (beside the tourist hot spots in Croatia).
I think Zagreb, Belgrade, Dubrovnik - but also Skopje and Podgorica - have some tremendous growth potential.
Well, I guess (my opinion) the main problem is that most of the airports are still managed by the governments and the people responsible for the airports don't care too much about the profits / operation of the airports / airlines.
Skopje airport was rented in the next 20 years to TAV including Ohrid. TAV management did some good moves, and now SKP is having few more airlines, like wizz air, pegasus and belle air europe. Although almost all of the airports are having increase in traffic and passengers the increase can be much better if there are people at the top which really care about the numbers.
Plus, the failure from the beginning of the summer when the planned summer charter filghts got canceled (http://bit.ly/q74hv4) just before takeoff clearance shows that there is still a lot of unprofessionalism in this region, but also shows that there is interest for flights in the ex-yu region.
BHMNONREV From Australia, joined Aug 2003, 1286 posts, RR: 4 Reply 3, posted (1 year 8 months 3 weeks 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 1921 times:
Wow, certainly a beautiful facility and will certainly be the envy of the Balkans for sure, all Macedonians should be proud of this new terminal..
What will BEG, ZAG, SJJ, etc all do to try and keep up? I know BEG is in the middle of upgrades and improvements as of a few months ago, Zagreb seems to be doing nothing and I have not heard anything lately regarding Sarajevo
TIA From Albania, joined Mar 2006, 520 posts, RR: 2 Reply 6, posted (1 year 8 months 3 weeks 22 hours ago) and read 1539 times:
Quoting LazialeMKD (Thread starter): Once the terminal is open it will be the most modern terminal at the Balkan's peninsula.
Haha, I love these blanket statements that are completely subjective and pointless. Very typical of ALL Balkan people to make statements like this BTW. How do you measure modern? This is neither the largest, nor the one with the most amenities. But yes it is the newest, so automatically it should be the shiniest.
Quoting SASMD82 (Reply 1): Slightly off the topic but what is 'wrong' with the aviation in the republics of the former Yugoslavia? The airlines that operate in these states are all very small and the large low-cost carriers have hardly added any destinations (beside the tourist hot spots in Croatia).
Nothing wrong, it's simply what the market can handle. I wouldn't call the airlines that operate here very small either. It is primary LH/OS/LX territory. And the reason why you don't see more LCCs here (apart from some protectionism reasons) is because demand is not there. And even so, U2 flies to LJU, ZAG, PRN, DBV, SPU. FR flies to Zadar, Rijeka, Pula and Osijek. Wizzair flies to SKP, BEG, DBV, SPU. Norwegian flies to BEG and PRN. Jetairfly flies to PRN. Germanwings flies to a bunch of these countries as well, etc. So it's not like the ex-Yugoslav countries are entirely off the LCCs route maps.
Quoting SASMD82 (Reply 1): I think Zagreb, Belgrade, Dubrovnik - but also Skopje and Podgorica - have some tremendous growth potential.
Growth potential and current demand are two different things.
Seeing this Summer's bookings to LTN, I wouldn't say that they have been that successful, although I'll admit that I don't know if things have picked up lately.
Quoting bjorn14 (Reply 4): According to the pic in the link is six gates the total number or are there some not shown?
6 gates is more than SKP will need for quite a long time. Keep in mind that SKP has less than 1 million passengers/year and growth has been anemic.
SASMD82 From Netherlands, joined Mar 2007, 549 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (1 year 8 months 3 weeks 12 hours ago) and read 1415 times:
Quoting TIA (Reply 6): Nothing wrong, it's simply what the market can handle. I wouldn't call the airlines that operate here very small either. It is primary LH/OS/LX territory. And the reason why you don't see more LCCs here (apart from some protectionism reasons) is because demand is not there. And even so, U2 flies to LJU, ZAG, PRN, DBV, SPU. FR flies to Zadar, Rijeka, Pula and Osijek. Wizzair flies to SKP, BEG, DBV, SPU. Norwegian flies to BEG and PRN. Jetairfly flies to PRN. Germanwings flies to a bunch of these countries as well, etc. So it's not like the ex-Yugoslav countries are entirely off the LCCs route maps.
Scandinavia, Finland and Ireland e.g. are low populated countries too but have far more aircraft movements than Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo. I don't have any figures but if you look at the number of passengers travelling via these airports, you can get a good overview.
Quoting TIA (Reply 6): Growth potential and current demand are two different things.
1 + 1 = 2 right? No, you are right with this point. But what I mean is that the normal men in these countries do not take a plane that often. If these men - like the West-European men fly once or twice a year, this would mean that there is a huge potential (around 5 to 10 million people).
FatmirJusufi From Albania, joined Jan 2009, 2410 posts, RR: 7 Reply 8, posted (1 year 8 months 3 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 1368 times:
Quoting TIA (Reply 6): Quoting LazialeMKD (Reply 2):
like wizz air
Seeing this Summer's bookings to LTN, I wouldn't say that they have been that successful, although I'll admit that I don't know if things have picked up lately.
I have been able to notice some of their billboard ads around Prishtina.
TIA From Albania, joined Mar 2006, 520 posts, RR: 2 Reply 9, posted (1 year 8 months 3 weeks 1 hour ago) and read 1260 times:
Quoting SASMD82 (Reply 7):
Scandinavia, Finland and Ireland e.g. are low populated countries too but have far more aircraft movements than Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo. I don't have any figures but if you look at the number of passengers travelling via these airports, you can get a good overview.
Yes, but we those countries are not ex-Yugoslavia. They're richer, have more business travelers, have more tourists and in some of them (like Norway for example) there is no viable alternative to air for domestic travel.
Quoting FatmirJusufi (Reply 8):
I have been able to notice some of their billboard ads around Prishtina.
They had some ridiculously low fares these Summer from LTN. If I lived in PRN, I would have definitely flown them to SKP and driven the rest of the way. Heck, I almost flew them to SKP instead of flying to TIA anyway, because including all fees PLUS a rental car for a week, they were still cheaper than flying to TIA. Both TIA and PRN have both BA flying from LGW and LZ flying from STN and prices are still ridiculously high compared to Wizzair at SKP.
FatmirJusufi From Albania, joined Jan 2009, 2410 posts, RR: 7 Reply 10, posted (1 year 8 months 3 weeks ago) and read 1214 times:
Quoting TIA" class="quote" target="_blank">TIA (Reply 9): They had some ridiculously low fares these Summer from LTN. If I lived in PRN, I would have definitely flown them to SKP and driven the rest of the way. Heck, I almost flew them to SKP instead of flying to TIA anyway, because including all fees PLUS a rental car for a week, they were still cheaper than flying to TIA. Both TIA and PRN have both BA flying from LGW and LZ flying from STN and prices are still ridiculously high compared to Wizzair at SKP.
For all of those who live in Prishtina, Skopje isn't too far. We can easily get there, it's just the matter you're are crossing a border, nothing more.
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No, you are right with this point. But what I mean is that the normal men in these countries do not take a plane that often. If these men - like the West-European men fly once or twice a year, this would mean that there is a huge potential (around 5 to 10 million people).
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