Skopje Airport overtakes Zagreb to become EX-YU's third busiest
Skopje Airport has handled more travellers than its traditionally busier counterpart in Zagreb during the first four months of the year, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to impact traditional passenger flows. Macedonia’s busiest airport handled 197.887 passengers during the January - April period, down 48.6%. This is compared to Zagreb, where passenger numbers declined 65.8% to 167.420 over the four-month period. The majority of Macedonian nationals are still not permitted entry into most European Union-member states, which are traditionally the busiest markets from Skopje Airport. Some 77% of the airport’s traffic is generated to EU markets. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the traditional order of the busiest airports in the former Yugoslavia, with Pristina having the most passengers during the first quarter, overtaking Belgrade, Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik.
During the January - April period, the most capacity in and out of Skopje was offered to Istanbul’s two airports - Istanbul International and Sabiha Gokcen - followed by Basel, London Luton, Dortmund and Vienna. At the same time, the most seats in and out of Zagreb were offered to Frankfurt, followed by Amsterdam, Dubrovnik, Split and Istanbul. Skopje outperformed Zagreb in both February and March, although the Croatian capital was busier in April, which included the Easter holidays. This month, the amount of offered capacity from Macedonia stands at 45.6% compared to pre-Covid 2019 levels. On the other hand, Croatia has reached 20.6% of May’s capacity from two years ago.
Both Skopje and Zagreb are managed by the same company, although the latter is part of a bigger consortium. Croatia’s busiest airport is expected to rebound strongly over the summer with Ryanair to open a base in the city towards the end of August and launch sixteen new routes during the summer. Commenting on the current state of the Macedonian air travel market, the General Manager of Skopje Airport’s operator TAV Macedonia, Metin Batak, said, “Until the EU/Schengen restrictions are lifted and people are able to travel freely for non-essential purposes, as they did before, we will be facing difficulties. Considering these challenges and the shifts in the aviation industry on a global scale, recovery will be slow and will take time in order for Macedonian airports to return to the same passenger numbers we had prior to the crisis”.
0 Response to "Skopje Airport overtakes Zagreb to become EX-YU's third busiest"
Post a Comment