Skopje sustains lead over Zagreb as EX-YU's third busiest airport
Skopje Airport has handled more travellers than its traditionally busier counterpart in Zagreb during the first half of the year, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to impact traditional passenger flows. Macedonia’s busiest airport handled 374.722 passengers during the January - June period, down 64.6% on the same period in 2019. This is compared to Zagreb, where passenger numbers declined 78% on 2019 to 337.372 over the six-month period. The majority of Macedonian nationals were only permitted entry into most European Union-member states just a month ago. These are traditionally the busiest markets from Skopje Airport, with some 77% of the airport’s traffic generated to and from the EU. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the traditional order of the busiest airports in the former Yugoslavia, with Belgrade having the most passengers during the first half of the year, followed by Pristina and Skopje.
During the January - June period, the most capacity in and out of Skopje was offered to Istanbul’s two airports - Istanbul International and Sabiha Gokcen - followed by Basel, Vienna, Dortmund and London Luton. At the same time, the most seats in and out of Zagreb were offered to Frankfurt, followed by Amsterdam, Dubrovnik, Split and Istanbul. Wizz Air and Turkish Airlines had the most capacity out of the Macedonian capital, while Croatia Airlines and KLM dominated out Zagreb. Skopje outperformed its Croatian counterpart in January, February, March, May and June, with Zagreb being busier in April, which included the Easter holidays.
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 in the coming months with Ryanair to open a base in the city towards the end of August with a total of 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, “Most airlines have restored their operations. This applies particularly to Wizz Air, which has resumed operations to Germany, as well as Northern and Western Europe. However, due to the big shocks experienced by the aviation sector and the sudden changes in travel restrictions by different countries, we expect a slow recovery. Step by step, we expected the number of destinations at Skopje to return to the level we had before the crisis, which is 44”.
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