Skopje International 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.[7] A year later, the route was extended to Thessaloniki in central Macedonia, Greece, and further extended to Athens in 1933.[7] 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.[7]

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.[8][9]

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 Alexander the Great 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.[10]

In February 2018, Alexander the Great was dropped from the airport's name in a move to improve relations with Greece.[11] A few months before, Aegean Airlines announced future flights between Athens and Skopje,[12] the first flights to Greece for several years, another example of improved relations between the two countries following the Prespa agreement.

The number of passengers has increased since 1990, from 312,492 passengers in that year, to 2,158,258 passengers in 2018. However, traffic was often dropped in twenty years. In 2000 the airport handled 1,005,852 passengers, but in 2001 the number of passengers dropped to 499,789.[14] 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.

Traffic figures at Skopje International Airport

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[15]	2,360,400	9,4%	3,407	3.3%	19,177	5.4%
2020 [16]	709,241	70%