27 July 2011

Skopje's new Airport Terminal Near Completion

The grand opening of Skopje's new world class passenger terminal, part of Alexander The Great Airport is slated for September 8, Macedonian Independence Day.
At a cost of €110 million the new terminal will be ten times bigger than the existing building and will allow for long-awaited improvements to passenger travel.
The terminal will feature six air bridges, 23 check-in desks and 15 passport control counters, stretching over more than 40,000 square metres. TAV says that they have completed more than 80 per cent of the construction of the building.
Work has also been done on the runway, which is being extended from 2.5 to 3.1 kilometres to ease the landing of larger aircraft. A new cargo terminal and road access to the airport and parking area are also being constructed.

“My vision for the airport is to make it the regional hub,” TAV Macedonia's director, Murat Ornekol, told News 24 TV recently. The management hopes to increase the annual number of passengers from slightly over half a million today to 3.5 million a year.
“In the past, many passengers headed to airports in neighbouring countries. Our goal is to attract those passengers back. And believe me the new terminal building has the capacity to accommodate this number,” Ornekol said.
Since TAV's entry, the airport has seen solid growth.  In the first half of 2011, the number of passengers increased by nearly 10 per cent. It has also welcomed new budget airlines like WizzAir, Air Berlin, XL Airways and soon the Turkish low budget carrier, Pegasus Airlines.

Turkish Airlines and other companies who already operate in Skopje are also expected to increase their number of flights.
TAV started construction work at the airport in mid-2010. The government chose the company to reconstruct and manage Macedonia's airports in 2008.
 Last year TAV finished reconstruction of the country’s second civil airport in the tourist town of Ohrid. TAV recently boasted that in only one year they increased the number of passengers there by a staggering 60 per cent.

21 July 2011

New Tobacco Factory in Kavadarci

Company Alliance One has invested EUR 4 million in the opening of a new tobacco processing plant. Another investor is Kadavarci-based IGM Trade.
The Management of Alliance One says they cooperate with more than 9,000 producers and this year, they signed contracts on more than 6,700 tons of tobacco.
Alliance One has been present in Macedonia for the past 13 years. Prior to that, the company Diamond entered the market by buying two Macedonian companies in Kadavarci and Vinica. Alliance One ranks tenth in Macedonia by export.

18 July 2011

79 Euros Flights to Venice and Ancona Promoted

As of Sunday, Italy's Belle Air Europe airline kicked off new flights Skopje-Ancona-Skopje and Skopje-Venice-Skopje. Thus, regular connections to Ancona and Venice from Skopje-based Alexander the Great airport are being established twice a week - every Thursday and Sunday.
Swiss tour operator Air Pristina organises the flights from Macedonia to Ancona and Venice in cooperation with Belle Air.One-way tickets for both destinations cost 79 euros including airport taxes.
TAV Macedonia company, which manages the Skopje airport, organised on Sunday a welcome ceremony for the first flight from Ancona, which landed this morning. A Belle Air Europe plane from Skopje to Venice took off also in the morning.
"We are glad for introducing these two important new destinations. We believe that the flights from Skopje to Ancona and Venice will offer opportunities for tourists from Italy to visit Macedonia, thus advancing country's tourist potential," TAV Macedonia's general director Zoran Krstevski said.

Done Deal: Macedonia and USA Sign "Open Skies" Agreement

The United States and Macedonia today reached an Open-Skies aviation agreement, which will allow airlines of the two countries to select routes, destinations and prices for both passenger and cargo service based on consumer demand and market conditions. It is the first aviation agreement between the two countries.
“By agreeing on an open market for aviation services now, we are setting the stage for travel and trade between the United State and Macedonia to develop in the future,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “We welcome Macedonia as an Open-Skies partner.
”Open-Skies agreements allow unrestricted access by the airlines of each side to fly to, from and beyond the other’s territory, without restriction on how often carriers fly, the kind of aircraft they use and the prices they charge.
The new opportunities are available immediately. The agreement makes Macedonia the 103rd U.S. Open-Skies partner.

Skopje Railway Station set for upgrade

The Macedonian Government is continuing with furious tempo to build new and upgrade the existing infrastructure around the country. 
The upgrade of Skopje’s main railway station, a project worth 2.6 million euro ($3.6 million), is planned to get underway in mid-2012, the Transport Ministry said.
A consultant that will draw up the project in line with European Union standards is planned to be picked this year, Transport Ministry spokesman Dragan Simonovski said in a written statement sent to local media on Tuesday.

12 July 2011

Macedonia becomes part of dutch tourism offer

Ohrid hotel owners and representatives of tour-operator TUI Netherlands signed over the weekend an agreement for lease of holidays at the Ohrid Lake for the coming three seasons.
TUI Netherlands is planning to sell over 7,000 holidays for the next season, along with increase of charter flights to Ohrid.
Vice Premier for Economic Affairs Vladimir Pesevski and TUI officials held Monday a meeting focused on the operator's plans in Macedonia for the coming period.
"We referred to possibilities for improvement of Macedonia's tourism offer. It is of enormous significance for us to improve Macedonia's competitiveness on the global market. Therefore, we aim towards increasing the quality and diversity of our tourism sector", stated Pesevski.
TUI is a leader in the Dutch tourism industry, producing 1,3 million holidays at the country's market in 2010, with a turnover of EUR 1,4 billion. TUI Netherlands is part of the TUI Travel Group, a leading tour-operator in Europe, working in 180 countries and servicing over 30 million tourists in global terms. TUI owns 150 airplanes and employs approximately 49,000 people at six continents.

11 July 2011

Goran Atanasovski - Awarded best promoter of Macedonia

Skopje, 16 March 2011 (MIA) - Goran Atanasovski is the winner of 2010 Best Promoter Award for his on-line project Travel2Macedonia and website www.travel2macedonia.com.mk.
The Macedonia's Best Promoter Award is initiated by the project 'Macedonia Loves You' (www.macedonialovesyou.com) as a recognition to people who love Macedonia and promote the country across the globe by their music, photos, humanitarian activities...
The project's mastermind, Macedonia's sincere friend form Poland Stanisalv Pigon, presented the award to Atanasovski at a ceremony in Skopje City Museum.
The Life Achievement Award is presented to Victor A. Friedman for his 35 efforts to promote the Macedonian language and culture across the globe.
Extra statutory awards are presented to Vesna Sokolovska for promoting the Macedonian culture, tradition in London, tenor Blagoj Nacoski for his artistic achievements and promotion of Macedonia worldwide, Team Macedonia Export for supporting Macedonian companies abroad and Vasko Markovski for his 'Free Time Guide' publication.
Awards are also presented to several, individuals, associations and companies.
The award winners have been chosen by citizens at a contest, which was running on the social network Facebook in the past three months.

Nearly 40 Events at 51st Ohrid Summer Festival

The 51st Ohrid Summer Festival will be formally opened on Tuesday (July 12) with "Trilogia Romana", a grand multimedia project produced by famous Spanish company "La Fura dels Baus" and performed by the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra. The festival this year, which ends of Aug. 20, will host about forty events."Trilogia Romana" is composed by Ottorino Respighi, which was performed last month in Rome and Valencia. "La Fura dels Baus" company has been producing plays for 32 years and is known for its uniqueness.Selector of the music program, Gordana Josifova-Nedelkovska told a press conference on Wednesday that the festival would see the performances by Nigel Kennedy - one of the most famous violinists in the world, eminent Russia pianists, Alexander Gindin, Alexei Volodin and Boris Berezovsky, as well as many others.Other must-see performances, especially by Macedonian artists, are the concerts by guitarist Vlatko Stefanovski and violinist Stefan Milenkovic on Aug. 1 and by musician Duke Bojadziev on Aug. 2 at the Antique Theater in Ohrid.
"This year the program is different from last year's because it was retrospective. The festival once again aims to bring fresh artists from all around the world. In the past 50 years, the festival hosted an impressive number of musicians, however nowadays there is a pleiad of amazing musicians who perform in packed venues worldwide and our goal is to bring artists who haven't performed before in Ohrid," she said.
Selector of the drama program, Gjorgi Jolevski said this year's Ohrid Summer Festival offered performances of classical plays by Euripides, Heiner Muller, Beaumarchais, William Shakespeare...
There will be three premieres at the festival - "The Marriage of Figaro" directed by Levan Tsuladze and produced by the Macedonian National Theater, "Cabaret Misterioso" directed by Dejan Damjanovski and produced by the Ohrid Theater. Ohrid Summer Festival will be closed with the premiere of "Medea" directed by Nada Kokotovic and produced by the Bitola National Theater.In addition to concerts and plays, the festival also offers numerous exhibitions.

05 July 2011

Lets go to Venice! Skopje - Venice Flight 25.99 Euros

Starting from September 20, you can fly from Skopje to Venice with one-way fares starting at 25.99 EUR, all taxes and fees included, Hungarian low cost airline Wizz-air said in a statement. 

‘This is only the beginning. We plan to introduce other flight routes’, Commercial Director of Wizz Air, Gyorgy Abran said at today’s press conference. 

WizzAir has launched flights from Skopje to London, as of June 19. So far, WizzAir has sold about 8250 one-way tickets to London. 

The company expects that by the end of the year at least 25.000 people will book flights to London or Venice. 

You can book tickets easily by paying online using your credit or debit card. You can get a cheaper deal by booking your flight early.