Wizz Air starts strong on new Skopje routes
Wizz Air will today base its fifth aircraft in Skopje and introduce a further two new routes, on top of the two already launched from the Macedonian capital and three from Ohrid in 2019. The low cost carrier will commence two weekly flights to Turku in southwest Finland with 169 passengers booked on the inaugural service operated by the 180-seat Airbus A320 aircraft. The inbound flight has 173 travellers booked. Later in the day, Wizz Air will commence services between Skopje and Larnaca. The inaugural flight, operated by the A321 jet, is overbooked by two passengers with a total of 232 travellers, while the return service will see 184 passengers. The new routes will link Skopje with Finland and Cyprus for the first time with a scheduled air service. Both destinations will be maintained throughout the year. Initially planned to start in early July, their launch has been pushed back on several occasions due to operational reasons.
The budget carrier will station its fifth jet in the Macedonian capital, an Airbus A320, with its fleet now comprising of three A320s and two A321s. To mark the occasion, a press conference will be held in Skopje today at midday. It will be attended by Wizz Air's Corporate Communications Manager, Paulina Gosk, the General Manager of airport operator TAV Macedonia, Alper Ersoy, and the Macedonian Minister for Transport and Communications, Goran Sugareski. In order to accommodate its growing operations, Wizz Air will be holding a recruitment day in Skopje next month. The eight new routes launched by the airline from the country in 2019 are being subsidises by the Macedonian government for a period of three years. The budget carrier recently upgraded all of its seasonal flights from Skopje and Ohrid to year-round operations. Last year, the airline downgraded its services from Skopje to Barcelona and Vaxjo, as well as from Ohrid to London Luton, to seasonal summer flights. However, this coming winter, Wizz will maintain operations on all three routes twice per week.
Commenting on the rapid development of its operations out of Macedonia over the past eight years, which have been supported by the state, Wizz Air's CEO, Jozsef Varadi, previously said, "We think that, strategically, it is important for the country to continue to develop its infrastructure and accessibility. Given the stage of development of Macedonia's market at the moment it looks like some government aid is important and it has been a successful recipe for building traffic from Skopje but it is a government decision". Asked whether Wizz would continue to grow its operations out of the country even without state subsidies, Mr Varadi noted, "We would look at the commercial opportunities on a constant basis and if we would find a new route opportunity that is totally justifiable, yes, we would do it on its own merit". Wizz Air handled just over 750.000 passengers on its Macedonia flights during the first half of the year, extending its dominance on the market where it now accounts for 65.1% of all travellers.
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