Cheap Flights Still Unavailable from Macedonia’s Airports
Since the visa liberalisation and TAV’s taking over the management of the Skopje and Ohrid airports, the number of flights from Macedonia has increased only by 10 per cent even though there was an expected growth of between 30 and 40 per cent, the Utrinski Vesnik newspaper reported today.
There are still no low budget flights to and from the country either, and Macedonians find it cheaper to travel to Belgrade, Sofia, Pristina or Thessaloniki, from where they can use low-cost airlines, rather than from Skopje.
The publication cites examples of ticket prices from Skopje to some destinations in Western Europe and compares them to budget airlines’ prices in the region: a return ticket from Skopje to Vienna costs around 400 euros, while from Sofia, it is only around 70 euro. Skopje - Belgrade - Brussels reaches a price of 400 euro, while Skopje – Vienna on Austrian Airlines costs between 259 euro, at the lowest, and 820 at the highest, while a ticket Podgorica-Vienna costs between 70 to 450 euro.
If low-cost companies enter the Macedonian market, they will do so after the new terminal of the Alexander the Great Airport in Skopje is completed. Construction of the terminal started three months ago and completion is expected to be by the end of next year.
Another reason for the absence of low-budget airlines on the Macedonian market is that it is too small, the publication noted.
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