Skopje Airport

The completely rebuilt airport was opened in 2011. I have flown there twice since and am impressed with the new building! Large departure/arrivals waiting area a nice cafe/restaurant with food and beverages (well priced) a couple of shops and an enormous parking lot. They just built a brand new interchange for the highway as well (located right on the main highway). They just opened a new City Bus route that travels to the Airport from the centre of Skopje and also the city bus and train station downtown. In the gate area there is a "Beer Garden" cafe a Burger King and two Duty Free Shops nicely equipped with a large Macedonian Wine section. The building is clean and staff are efficient. It's a pleasure flying to and from this new airport!

Skopje airport seems to be smaller than some big railway stations. A handful of counters half a dozen gates. Accessibility by car is great - the parking lot is face to face to the terminal. Shopping and catering is limited but handling passengers and baggage is quite efficient. Hardly surprising so it is a really small airport with just a small number of flights to handle. Immigration can be somewhat weird - please do not chat loudly to your travel companion while standing in the queue for the counter! Entering or leaving Macedonia is a serious official procedure which dignity should not be disturbed by chatting travellers. - Important: do not rely on taxi drivers' hotel recommendations! You will get a nasty overpriced hotel room while your driver gets a nice commission from the hotel owner.

I flew twice from SKP to ZRH with the Swiss carrier "Helvetic Airways" this year. Unfortunately the bus-connection from city-centre is - optimistically said - "developable" so you'd better take a taxi. Fix the price with the driver in advance! The airport is small only with basic facilities so the check-in is quite fast and without problems. Baggage control is ok though not really well organized as well as the passport-control anyway: it works. The waiting lounge has a nice view to the planes (if there are some...) a really small duty-free with bored female sales-agents and a bar where you can drink a coffee for a reasonable price compared to other airports. SKP is unspectacular and unproblematic. Go for it!