The Ministry of Transport and Communications announced a public call for subsidizing new airlines from Skopje International Airport and Saint Paul the Apostle Airport in Ohrid. The subsidies will be given in the next three years, that is, from 2023 to 2025, and 1.1 million euros have been provided for this purpose in the budget for the next year.
As the Minister of Transport and Communications Blagoj Bochvarski said, this public call is different from the previous ones and several airlines can be chosen for it, and not just one, that is, the Hungarian low-budget company "Wizz Air" as it was before.
"This public call is in accordance with the policies of fair and competitive conditions according to the regulation of the European Union. It is extremely important for us to attract new companies that will operate in new destinations. "Lines that have not been operated for at least two years will be subsidized," Minister Bochvarski said.
Airlines that want to bid on the public call should have carried at least 10 million passengers in 2019, have made a profit of at least 25 million euros in 2019 and fly at least twice a week. The financial support will be awarded by ranking the new destinations according to the period of operation of the destination, number of weekly flights, attractiveness of the airport to which it operates and number of seats offered for sale.
"The financial support will be 7 euros per passenger departing from Skopje International Airport and 4.5 euros per passenger departing from St. Apostle Paul in Ohrid. The entire procedure will take place in a public and transparent manner and we will select airlines that will submit the best offers according to the criteria in the public call. "Our ultimate goal is to ensure the growth of air traffic in the country, and to provide citizens with attractive destinations according to their needs at affordable ticket prices," said Bochvarski.
Asked if it is possible for the low-budget Hungarian company "Wizz Air" to withdraw from the country, given that the new call allows for the subsidization of more companies and new lines that have not been operated from Skopje before, Bochvarski said that "Wizz Air" does not receive subsidies from the state. 2020, but continues to fly to a large number of destinations from Skopje and Ohrid.
According to the latest data from January to September this year, "Wizz Air" accounts for 58.2 percent of the total number of passengers at Skopje Airport and currently has 4 Airbus A320 aircraft with 180 seats each. Macedonian aviation authorities fear a so-called "Sarajevo scenario" when Wizz Air closed its base in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina almost without notice, contributing to a dramatic drop in traffic and reduced revenue. "Wizz Air" recently canceled flights to Turku in Finland, Turin in Italy, Billund in Denmark from Skopje, and will not renew the line from Ohrid to Friedrichshafen in Germany. During the corona crisis, flights from Skopje to Barcelona and to Larnaca were canceled and have not been renewed since then. At the same time, with the winter flight schedule, "Wizz Air" canceled four routes from Belgrade and one from Ljubljana.
The deadline for submission of requests for participation in the procedure is January 19, 2023. The public opening of requests for financial support will be held on January 20.
Commentaires