In the aftermath of the recent announcement of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications that by 2030 will introduce a direct line between the Transportation Center and the International Airport Skopje, the experts are requesting from the Macedonian government to invest as soon as possible in the connecting the airport with the capital city with a railroad line.
The Project documentation for building a branch line on the current railway line between Skopje and Kumanovo to reach the airport will yet have to be prepared along with a feasibility study. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications has included this project as part of the National Transportation Strategy 2018-2030, but for now, there aren’t any announcements for the implementation of definite steps towards introducing an airport train.
Nikola Krstanovski, a university professor at the Faculty of Technical Studies in Bitola, stresses that the current bus transportation to the airport is not even remotely close enough. He said that only a few km of the railroad line and a railway station at the airport is what has been missing all along. In order for a train to be put into use for traffic such as this, it is necessary for an investment to be made in the length from 3 to 5 km depending on whether the airport can be linked with the railway station Ilinden or Miladinovci.
– I am almost certain that the concessioner TAV would support a project such as this as it will benefit them as well. Again, if you make a comparison with other European cities one will notice that they all have a railroad line with the national airport – stresses Prof. Nikola Krstanoski.
Accoridng to the prognosis that was recently announced by the Turkish concessioner TAV, the International Airport Skopje will reach the number of 3 million passengers by 2022.
