Wizz Air to launch four new Skopje routes including Ljubljana
Wizz Air will commence flights from Skopje to four European cities from November 1, which will be subsidised by the Macedonian government over the next three years after it won a tender designed to support the introduction of new routes from either the Macedonian capital or Ohrid. The budget carrier, which boasts a base in Skopje, will commence three weekly flights each to Ljubljana, Stuttgart, Salzburg and Luxembourg. Under the terms of the tender, Wizz Air will be obligated to maintain flights from Skopje to these four destinations for another three years once the subsidy program expires. If it fails to do so, it will have to return the state funds.
Wizz Air has previously operated flights between Skopje and Salzburg. The service commenced in the summer of 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic but was discontinued after just one flight as Austria banned entry from a number of countries in the Balkans, including Macedonia. Flights were not restored thereafter. On the other hand, services to Ljubljana will resume for the first time in four years. Flights were previously operated by the now defunct Adria Airways until its bankruptcy in September 2019. At the time, Adria maintained operations on the route twice per day. Skopje is one of Ljubljana’s busiest unserved routes and the Slovenian government recently also launched a tender to subsidise the introduction of ten new destinations, among which is the Macedonian capital.
Lufthansa, which was the only other airline to take part in the Macedonian tender, will receive financial support over the next three years for its previously announced ten weekly service between Frankfurt and Skopje, which will launch on Sunday of next week. The carrier has not committed to adding more frequencies or routes as part of the tender. “I want to express my great satisfaction that we managed to secure five new destinations from Skopje Airport. At this point, Skopje Airport offers 41 scheduled routes, and there are a further seven European destinations served from Ohrid”, the Macedonian Minister for Transport and Communications, Blagoj Bočvarski, said. Wizz Air is expected to schedule its new routes out of Skopje for the 2023/24 winter season shortly.
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