Skopje Airport is expected to witness its busiest winter season to date, with three new routes to begin in the coming months. During the winter period, which begins on October 29 and runs until March 30, Skopje Airport has 1.592.254 seats on offer on 9.091 scheduled flights. It represents growth in capacity of over 60% on the pre-pandemic 2019. Fuelling the increase is Wizz Air, which will base its sixth aircraft in the Macedonian capital this December, introduce two new routes – Ljubljana and Luxembourg – and boost frequencies on nine existing services. Wizz Air will account for roughly 65% of Skopje Airport’s total capacity during the winter.
Lufthansa, which commenced ten weekly operations between Frankfurt and the Macedonian capital this summer will maintain the service over the winter as well and will be Skopje’s fourth largest carrier in terms of available seats. Another newcomer over the winter months is SunExpress, which is upgrading its seasonal summer flights from Antalya and Izmir to Skopje to year-round operations. The carrier plans to maintain two weekly services from Antalya with the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and one weekly rotation from Izmir to the Macedonian capital with the B737-800 jet throughout the upcoming winter. Greece’s national carrier Aegean Airlines will commence a three weekly service between Skopje and Sarajevo, to complement its six weekly flights from Athens.
Largest airline by capacity in Skopje during 2023/24 winter season
Skopje Airport is expected to continue its record passenger run achieved so far this year. During the January – July period, it welcomed 1.541.952 passengers, up 18.5% on the same period during the pre-pandemic 2019. “We are glad to see that the surge in air travel continues in 2023, and with consumer confidence in air travel back, combined with our excellence in airport service quality, we expect that this year will be one of reaching new milestones in passenger numbers for both of Macedonia’s airports”, the General Manager of operator TAV Macedonia, Nejat Kurt, said.