The Macedonian government will provide 1.1 million euros in subsidies to airlines this year in order for them to launch new routes to the country. The Minister for Transport and Communications, Blagoj Bočvarski, said, “The government sees all airlines operating on the Macedonian market as serious partners for the development of air traffic in the country and we will continue to work with them. This year, 1.1 million euros have been provided in the budget as financial support for the launch of new routes”. He added, “As countries gradually lift their Covid-19 restriction, air traffic will begin returning to previous levels”.
Over the past decade, Macedonia has granted incentives for the launch of new routes to interested carriers through a public tender in three-year intervals. All have been won by Wizz Air, which was the only one to show interest. Mr Bočvarski has already said the budget airline will launch flights between Abu Dhabi and Skopje, although ticket sales are yet to commence. Last month, Ukraine’s Windrose Airlines commenced services from Kiev to the Macedonian capital. Governments across the region have been attempting to stimulate carriers to either maintain flights or launch new services in face of the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, the Slovenian government opted for a similar strategy by granting close to one million euros to airlines flying to the country, with a further one million to be provided this year.
The General Manager of airport operator TAV Macedonia, Metin Batak, has said that ongoing entry restrictions for Macedonian citizens continues to be one of the biggest obstacles for the recovery of air travel in the country. Speaking to EX-YU Aviation News, Mr Batak said, “The biggest challenge for recovery of Macedonian passenger traffic are the travel restrictions for Macedonian citizens established by EU member states due to Covid-19. Namely, citizens with Macedonian passports cannot enter any EU country, except if they are an essential worker (mostly medical workers) or have a certain type of visa (depends on the country). An additional headache is that different EU states have different restrictive policies introduced due to Covid-19. There is no coordinated approach to the problem within the EU and that affects all the countries geographically located in Europe and beyond. This is an external factor that we as an airport operator cannot mitigate with 77% of Macedonian air traffic concentrated in the EU. This is mostly the government’s competency. However, we are in a situation in which we cannot sit and wait. We must act”. He added, “We initiated and proposed a model of systematic testing at our airports to the Macedonian government, Ministry of Health and all relevant authorities. We hope to start with the opening of borders from some of the main EU markets, and then one by one, other countries would implement the same practice. It is a complicated process that, besides establishing the right health authority that would perform the testing at the airport, involves bilateral agreements between Macedonia and EU member states, therefore, we will need all the support we can get from the government and the relevant EU bodies”.
