Ohrid Airport sees rapid growth in 2019
Ohrid Airport has registered seat capacity growth of over 150% this year with the launch of new services by Wizz Air and Eurowings, helped by charter flights from the Netherlands and Poland. St Paul the Apostle Airport welcomed 70.597 travellers through its doors during the January - May period, representing an impressive increase of 81.8%. It added an extra 31.765 travellers on the same period last year. It is estimated to handle over 300.000 passengers in 2019. So far, demand has been highly seasonal with the airport welcoming around 36.000 travellers in July and August last year but only 5.000 passengers during most of the winter months. This trend is expected to ease this year with Wizz Air to maintain all of its routes during the 2019/2020 winter seasons.
Overall, Ohrid Airport will see the largest growth in traffic in 2019 in its 65-year history. "Back in 2014, for the most part of the year we handled only one plane daily. This year, in July and August, there will be days when we process some twenty flights per day. For comparison, just a few years ago we had three to four airlines serving St Paul the Apostle Airport, while this summer season there are thirteen foreign carriers connecting Ohrid with twenty destinations in twelve countries. This growth will continue in the future", the head of the Macedonian Civil Aviation Agency, Tomislav Tuntev, said.
Despite much of the demand for flights being driven by tourism, operator TAV Macedonia is looking to attract more passengers from neighbouring Albania to use its services at Ohrid Airport. The company's management met with tour operators and agencies in Elbasan in central Albania recently and has urged for the introduction of a shuttle bus service between the city and St Paul the Apostle Airport. The two are some sixty kilometres apart. The airport itself is actually closer to Tirana than Skopje. This summer, Ohrid is being served by Wizz Air, Edelweiss, Eurowings, Chair Airlines, Pegasus, Onur Air, Corendon Airlines, Brussels Airlines, TUIFly, Nordica, Enter Air, LOT and Helvetic.
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