| Skopje International Airport | |
| Image2-Width: | 250 |
| Iata: | SKP |
| Icao: | LWSK |
| Type: | Public / Military |
| Operator: | TAV Airports |
| City-Served: | Skopje |
| Location: | Petrovec, North Macedonia |
| Elevation-F: | 781 |
| Elevation-M: | 238 |
| Coordinates: | 41.9611°N 21.6269°W |
| Pushpin Map: | North Macedonia#Europe |
| Pushpin Label: | SKP/LWSK |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location within North Macedonia |
| Metric-Elev: | yes |
| Metric-Rwy: | yes |
| R1-Number: | 16/34 |
| R1-Length-F: | 9,992 |
| R1-Length-M: | 3,042 |
| R1-Surface: | Asphalt |
| Stat1-Header: | Passengers |
| Stat1-Data: | 2,883,378 |
| Stat2-Header: | Passenger change 2022-23 |
| Stat2-Data: | 34.8% |
| Stat3-Header: | Aircraft movements |
| Stat3-Data: | 21,985 |
| Stat4-Header: | Movements change 2022-23 |
| Stat4-Data: | 38% |
| Stat5-Header: | Cargo (tons) |
| Stat5-Data: | 3,585 |
| Stat6-Header: | Cargo change 2022-23 |
| Stat6-Data: | 36% |
| Stat-Year: | 2023 |
| Footnotes: | Source: Republic of North Macedonia AIP at EUROCONTROL[1] |
Skopje International Airport[2] [3] [4] (Macedonian: Меѓународен аеродром Скопје, Albanian: Aeroporti Ndërkombëtar i Shkupit), also known as Skopje Airport (Macedonian: Аеродром Скопје, Albanian: Aeroporti i Shkupit) and Petrovec Airport is the larger and busier of the two international airports in North Macedonia, with the other being the St. Paul the Apostle Airport in Ohrid, which is located 170km (110miles) southwest[1] from the national capital Skopje. The airport was previously named Skopje Alexander the Great Airport.
The airport was built in 1928. The first commercial flights in Skopje were introduced in 1929 when the Yugoslav carrier Aeroput introduced a route linking the city with the capital, Belgrade.[5] A year later, the route was extended to Thessaloniki and further to Athens in 1933.[5] In 1935, Aeroput linked Skopje with Bitola and Niš, and also operated a longer international route linking Vienna and Thessaloniki through Zagreb, Belgrade and Skopje.[5]
After the Second World War, Aeroput was replaced by JAT Yugoslav Airlines, which linked Skopje to a number of domestic and international destinations until the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
In December 2006, the conservative VMRO-DPMNE-led government of the Republic of Macedonia renamed the airport after Alexander the Great, sparking further controversy in the ongoing diplomatic feud with Greece. Both countries consider Alexander the Great as part of their respective heritages, demonstrated by the fact that the regional airport of Kavala in Greek Macedonia is also named after Alexander. However, the airport in Kavala was the first to be named as such since 1992.[6] [7]
In 2008, the Macedonian Government signed a contract with the Turkish company Tepe Akfen Ventures (TAV) for a twenty-year-long concession, during which this company would manage Macedonia's two existing airports, the Skopje Airport and the St. Paul the Apostle Airport in Ohrid.
In September 2011, the new terminal building, extension of the runway, new administrative building, cargo building and new access road with parking facilities were opened.[8]
In February 2018, Alexander the Great was dropped from the airport's name in a move to improve relations with Greece, with the airport being officially renamed Skopje International Airport.[9] A few months before, Aegean Airlines announced future flights between Athens and Skopje,[10] the first flights to Greece for several years, another example of improved relations between the two countries following the Prespa agreement.
The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Skopje:[11]
The number of passengers has increased since 1990, from 312,492 passengers in that year, to 2,158,258 passengers in 2018, but this was not a steady increase. In 2000 the airport handled 1,005,852 passengers, but in 2001 the number of passengers dropped to 499,789.[12] This was influenced in part by a number of airlines replacing services to Skopje with services to nearby. In 2014 Skopje airport handled 1,208,359 passengers, surpassing one million for the first time since 2000.
| Year | Passengers | Change | Cargo (t) | Change | Aircraft movements | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 397,660 | 27.3% | 1,088 | 41.9% | 7,158 | 106.5% | |
| 1992 | 390,025 | 1.9% | 1,023 | 6.0% | 7,079 | 1.1% | |
| 1993 | 577,425 | 48.0% | 4,338 | 324.0% | 10,681 | 50.9% | |
| 1994 | 603,447 | 4.5% | 6,936 | 59.9% | 10,803 | 1.1% | |
| 1995 | 583,053 | 3.4% | 10,205 | 47.1% | 11,692 | 8.2% | |
| 1996 | 422,598 | 27.5% | 3,209 | 68.6% | 8,618 | 26.3% | |
| 1997 | 440,988 | 4.4% | 4,881 | 52.1% | 8,995 | 4.4% | |
| 1998 | 511,784 | 16.1% | 5,239 | 7.3% | 10,321 | 14.7% | |
| 1999 | 840,985 | 64.3% | 11,682 | 123.0% | 23,912 | 131.7% | |
| 2000 | 1,005,852 | 19.6% | 4,335 | 62.9% | 24,234 | 1.3% | |
| 2001 | 499,789 | 50.3% | 3,262 | 28.8% | 16,673 | 31.2% | |
| 2002 | 520,497 | 4.1% | 3,271 | 0.3% | 13,725 | 17.7% | |
| 2003 | 500,012 | 3.9% | 2,083 | 36.3% | 12,428 | 9.4% | |
| 2004 | 497,105 | 0.6% | 2,004 | 3.8% | 10,940 | 12.0% | |
| 2005 | 525,965 | 5.8% | 1,815 | 9.4% | 12,101 | 10.6% | |
| 2006 | 547,198 | 4.0% | 1,903 | 4.8% | 12,637 | 4.4% | |
| 2007 | 626,144 | 14.4% | 2,194 | 15.3% | 13,085 | 3.5% | |
| 2008 | 658,367 | 5.1% | 2,771 | 26.3% | 10,666 | 18.5% | |
| 2009 | 602,298 | 8.5% | 2,125 | 23.3% | 9,871 | 7.5% | |
| 2010 | 716,000 | 18.9% | - | - | - | - | |
| 2011 | 759,918 | 6.1% | 2,376 | - | 10,977 | - | |
| 2012 | 828,831 | 9.1% | 2,297 | 3.3% | 10,418 | 5.1% | |
| 2013 | 984,407 | 18.8% | 2,504 | 9.0% | 11,276 | 8.2% | |
| 2014 | 1,208,359 | 22.7% | 3,422 | 36.7% | 13,210 | 17.2% | |
| 2015 | 1,452,465 | 20.2% | 2,649 | 22.6% | 14,451 | 9.4% | |
| 2016 | 1,649,374 | 13.6% | 3,090 | 10.9% | 15,407 | 6.6% | |
| 2017 | 1,868,272 | 13.3% | 2,744 | 11.2% | 16,680 | 8.3% | |
| 2018 | 2,158,258 | 15.5% | 3,298 | 20.2% | 18,188 | 9.0% | |
| 2019 | 2,360,400 | 9,4% | 3,407 | 3.3% | 19,177 | 5.4% | |
| 2020 | 709,241 | 70.0% | 2,132 | 37.4% | 7,625 | 60.2% | |
| 2021 | 1,266,230 | 78.5% | 3,039 | 42.5% | 12,056 | 58.1% | |
| 2022 | 2,139,191 | 68.9% | 2,635 | 13.3% | 15,923 | 32.1% | |
| 2023[13] | 2,883,378 | 34.8% | 3,585 | 36% | 21,985 | 38% |
| City | Airport(s) | Airline(s) | Market Share | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Istanbul | Istanbul Airport and Sabiha Gökçen Airport | Pegasus Airlines, Turkish Airlines | 13.1% | ||
   Basel Switzerland, Mulhouse France, Freiburg Germany | Basel/Mulhouse Airport | Wizz Air | 6.3% | ||
 Vienna | Vienna Airport | Austrian Airlines | 6.2% | ||
| Zürich | Zurich Airport | Chair Airlines, Edelweiss Air | 6.2% | ||
| Antalya | Antalya | AnadoluJet, Corendon Airlines, SunExpress | 4.2% | ||
| Memmingen | Memmingen | Wizz Air | 4% | ||
| Dortmund | Dortmund | Wizz Air | 4% | ||
| Cologne | Cologne/Bonn | Wizz Air | 3.1% | ||
| Source: [14] | |||||
| Rank | Carrier | Market share | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 59,3% | ||||
| 2 | 11.0% (incl. AnadoluJet) | ||||
| 3 | 6.7% | ||||
| 4 | 6.2% | ||||
| 5 | 4.9% | ||||
| Source: | |||||
| Rank | Country | Market share | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany | 24% | |||
| 2 | Turkey | 19.1% | |||
| 3 | Switzerland | 14.2% | |||
| 4 |  Sweden | 6.9% | |||
| 5 | Austria | 6.2% | |||
| Source: | |||||
Taxis to Skopje are available. There is also a bus service linking the airport and the city with several stops.