Macedonian aviation in disarray

Skopje Airport terminal building

Since Macedonia’s national carrier MAT was grounded, the country’s commercial aviation sector has been in chaos. Most affected by the disorganisation are passengers. Although some Macedonians did not have a favourable opinion of their national carrier, the airline did have schedules, destinations and aircraft. Since the demise of the national carrier many airlines, particularly EX-YU national carriers have significantly increased services to Skopje in hope of attracting Macedonian passengers to transit through their hub airports on route to other European destinations. Adria Airways and Jat Airways hold the greatest share of departures from Skopje at the moment. Recently, a new airline called Skywings International from Germany began services from Skopje to some European cities however they have not proved much relief. Passengers are complaining that the airline often delays its flights by more than 5 hours and destinations are dumped without announcement. The downfall of MAT has not seen air fares decline with Skopje Airport having some of the highest passenger taxes in Europe.

Meanwhile, MAT is expected to officially declare bankruptcy by the end of the month despite the fact that the airline has not been operating for some time. Macedonia becomes the only European country (that is not classified as a micro state) not to have a designated national flag carrier.