AT OHRID AIRPORT: TAV WELCOMED THE FIRST FLIGHT FROM ISTANBUL BY ONUR AIR AND TATILBUDUR.COM
With a water canon salute, Turkish delight and colorful cupcakes, TAV Macedonia warmly welcomed the first group of 180 passengers that arrived this afternoon from Istanbul at Ohrid St. Paul the Apostle Airport, with Airbus A320 airplane, operated by the airline Onur Air, organized by tour-operator Tatilbudur.com
The new seasonal flights Istanbul-Ohrid-Istanbul will be operated every Sunday, departing from Istanbul Atatürk Airport to Ohrid at 1:30 PM, while from Ohrid to Istanbul at 3:00 PM, in the period from 15th of April until the 21st of October.
-It is our pleasure to welcome the first flight from Istanbul at Ohrid Airport today and mark the beginning of the cooperation with the airline Onur Air and the tour operator Tatilbudur.com on the Macedonian market. This summer, more than 4.500 passengers from Istanbul, will arrive at Ohrid Airport with 23 flights, which will be operated once weekly, from 15th of April until 21st of October. This will be a significant contribution to the rise of the total number of Turkish tourists here, as well as for the development of the tourism at Ohrid Lake in general. Although organized as vacation tours, these flights are not just touristic flights, but also a good connection between the two cities for business and for visits of relatives and friends. Besides bookings of tours through Tatilbudur.com, individual travelers can also buy flight tickets directly at www.onurair.com, stated Alper Ersoy, TAV Macedonia General Manager.
-We, as Onur Air, love flying to the destinations which have not been served yet. As long as we have a motive, even a small one. Tatilbudur gave us this motive and impulse. TAV also supported us. We hereby express our thanks to them. I hope we can attain an achievement in Ohrid encompassing a wide range of our cultural heritage. The tickets of the flights, to attract not only our passengers living in Macedonia but also the ones living in the closely-situated Albania, can be purchased from our website and our authorized sales agencies, stated Teoman Tosun, Onur Air General Manager.
-As TatilBudur celebrates its 20th year in travel sector, we are happy to announce Istanbul-Ohrid flight, which will make important contribution to the flight business in Turkey. This flight is very significant for our country, TatilBudur, Onur Air and TAV as it is the first direct flight from Istanbul to Ohrid. We, as TatilBudur, set our goal as becoming the largest tour operator who carries most Turkish tourists to Balkan countries. We plan to organize 22 weekly tours in 23 Ohrid flights. By the help of this direct flight, we plan to provide economical travel opportunity for Turkish tourists to six countries, including Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, stated TatilBudur.com CEO, Cenk Angın.
TAV Macedonia expects a busy summer season at Ohrid Airport. Besides Istanbul, there will be 3 more new seasonal destinations announced – Warsaw, Tallinn and Eindhoven, in addition to existing seasonal flights to Amsterdam, Brussels, Tel Aviv, Katowice, operated from April until October.
The Polish tour operator Rego Bis, which commenced seasonal flights from Katowice in 2017, has announced to open another destination – Warsaw; the Estonian Airline
Nordica will launch seasonal flights from Tallinn to Ohrid; the Dutch tour operator TUI that already flies from Amsterdam will extend their operations to Ohrid, by opening Eindhoven as a new destination.
As of November, Wizzair will introduce new regular route from Ohrid to Vienna and will perform flights year around.
At the moment, at Ohrid Airport there are 3 regular routes year round – Basel, Zurich and London.
In the 1st quarter of 2018 (January-March), a total of 448.729 passengers travelled through both Macedonian airports, Skopje International Airport and Ohrid St.Paul the Apostle Airport, with a 22% increase on the annual level. At the same time the total number flights was 4.018, with an annual rise of 19%.