TAV Macedonia: Seasonal flights are coming back at Ohrid Airport
Following a longer break due to the pandemic declared worldwide, seasonal flights resume operations at Ohrid St. Paul the Apostle Airport. With the gradual lift of the strict travel restrictions due to COVID-19 and with the mass vaccination, passengers and tourists are getting back their confidence to travel again and to visit Ohrid, TAV Macedonia officials outlined
After the major shock caused by COVID-19 pandemic, seasonal flights are slowly coming back at Ohrid St. Paul the Apostle Airport. With the first flight on the route Eindhoven-Ohrid this afternoon (arrival time 15:20h), the regular seasonal destination from Eindhoven to Ohrid, operated by TUI Fly each summer season, is back again on the flight schedule of Ohrid Airport.
The aircraft type Airbus 320, with 176 seats capacity, carried Dutch tourists and travel enthusiasts, who landed this afternoon at Ohrid St. Paul the Apostle Airport.
As of today, 19th July, TUI Fly will operate during 2021 summer season with two flights a week, on Monday and on Friday, until the end of September.
A total of 20 flights are expected in this period, carrying a total of 3.520 Dutch passengers/tourists at Ohrid Lake.
“As TAV Macedonia, we are happy to say that the resume of the seasonal flights at Ohrid St. Paul the Apostle Airport and the return of the passengers and tourists from our traditional incoming markets at Ohrid Lake is yet another positive indicator towards Macedonian air traffic recovery. Following a longer break due to the pandemic declared worldwide last year, when the aviation and tourism globally suffered huge blow, we are glad to welcome seasonal flights with passengers who decided to spend their summer holiday in Ohrid and in our country. The arrival of the tourists at the Ohrid Lake is an evidence that passengers return their confidence to travel again. We sincerely hope that the situation with the pandemic would continue to improve and that we are going to welcome more passengers so that the Macedonian air traffic would fully recover reaching the volume we had in 2019 when the passengers number exceeded 2,3 million. As an airport operator, TAV is in constant communication with the existing operators and air carriers in order to support them in restarting the traffic and puts significant efforts in attracting new carriers for opening new destinations”, TAV Macedonia General Manager, Metin Batak, stated.
The resumption of the flights on the route Eindhoven-Ohrid is not the only seasonal operation that has been back at Ohrid St. Paul the Apostle Airport summer season flights season, which starts in April and ends in October.
On 20th June and 21st June, LOT Polish Airlines seasonal flights from Poland were back at Ohrid Airport. Thus, now Polish tourists are arriving twice weekly in Ohrid, each Sunday from Katowice and each Monday from Warsaw, and these flights will operate until 3rd October.
Besides the resumption of the seasonal destinations from Poland and Netherlands, Ohrid St. Paul the Apostle Airport currently operates 5 Wizz Air flights to Basel, Vienna, Malme, Dortmund and Memingen. The regular flights on the route Zurich-Ohrid are the most frequent and are operated by 3 different airlines: Edelweiss flies to Zurich once weekly (Sunday), Helvetic Airlines flies to Zurich 3 times per week (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), and Chair Airlines flies to Zurich 5 times per week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday).
After the sharp decline of the air traffic in 2020, during the first half of this year, or during the period between January – June, there were total of 394.224 passengers at both Macedonian airports, or 374.722 passengers who traveled through Skopje International Airport, and 19.502 passengers who traveled through Ohrid St. Paul the Apostle Airport, which represents 34% of the 2019 numbers. In terms of the number of flights, or aircrafts movements, during the first six months of 2021, Skopje International Airport handled 5.244, and Ohrid St. Paul the Apostle Airport handled 280 flights, respectively.