Pegasus Airlines (PC, Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen) along with Norwegian, Wizz Air, Ryanair, and easyJet are among the carriers the Macedonian government is considering in its quest to select a suitable candidate for its route subsidization programme.
EX-YU Aviation News reports that the abovementioned carriers are among the few that satisfy the government's criteria to secure its subsidies in that candidate airlines must have achieved a profit of at least EUR25million (USD30.5million) and carried over ten million passengers in 2013.
The winner will be required to open a base at Skopje with at least one aircraft and launch at least four new routes to continental Europe, Spain, and Scandinavia, as well as one new destination from Ohrid, by July 1, 2015. All newly launched routes must operate at least twice weekly all-year-round and cannot have been operated by any other airline over the past two years.
In return Skopje will pay EUR40'000 for each new destination launched and an additional EUR13 for each departing passenger in the first year of operations, EUR12 in the second, and EUR11 in the third year of operations.
The programme has attracted strong criticism from neighbouring Kosovo which claims the subsidies will distort the regional Balkan aviation market.
The tender closes on December 26.
