TAV ready for takeover

Skopje Airport

After numerous delays the Turkish company, Tepe Akfen Ventures, will take control over Macedonia’s 2 international airports, Skopje and Ohrid, on Monday March 1, the A1 network reports. TAV will control the airports until 2030 and will invest 200 million Euros for the upgrade of existing facilities and the construction of new ones. According to the deal signed between TAV and the Macedonian Government 2 years ago, TAV has to construct a completely new modern terminal at Skopje Alexander the Great Airport with the existing runway being enlarged while communal infrastructure, a car park and a cargo building would be built together with the main project. Meanwhile, Ohrid’s St. Paul the Apostle Airport would go under complete reconstruction and modernization with a new car park, cargo building and VIP section to be built. Finally, the project outlines that a cargo terminal would be built in Štip in Eastern Macedonia.

Speaking to the media, TAV said that Macedonia urgently needs a national carrier. Nearly a year after the collapse of MAT Macedonian Airlines several companies have tried and failed to create an airline in Macedonia. Jat’s Aeromak did not receive a license permit while Dubrovnik Airline’s Mont Air license request is still pending, despite the airline’s optimism with one aircraft already painted in Mont Air colours. Finally, Kontiki Travel, a tour operator in Serbia, announced that it was creating Mat Airways although there has been no fresh news on this project of late. TAV says that with fierce regional competition, Skopje and Ohrid airports can only grow if Macedonia has a national carrier. This, in turn, would lead to lower ticket prices for Macedonian travellers. TAV has said that it is trying to attract companies to set up an airline in Macedonia.