Rétablissement de la liaison Athènes-Skopje : arrivée de l'avion à Skopje

[Direct flights between Macedonia and Greece are resuming after more than a decade, amid a thaw in relations following a deal to rename Macedonia “North Macedonia.”] Direct flights between Macedonia and Greece are resuming after more than a decade, amid a thaw in relations following a deal to rename Macedonia “North Macedonia.” Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister Bujar Osmani was on the first flight from Athens to Macedonia’s capital of Skopje last night. Aegean Airlines will carry out the twice-weekly flights. Skopje and Athens had a direct air link from 2003-2007, but it was stopped after Macedonia’s previous conservative government named the Skopje airport after the ancient Greek warrior-king Alexander the Great, angering Athens. The neighboring countries were at odds for nearly three decades over the Macedonia name. Athens claimed the young nation to its north taking it implied territorial designs on Greece’s Macedonia province and on ancient Greek heritage. Skopje becomes the airline's seventh destination in the former Yugoslavia. It currently serves Belgrade and Zagreb on a year-round basis, and Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar and Podgorica during the summer. Furthermore, the carrier will introduce flights to Sarajevo on June 13, 2019. -vs of the arrival of the Aegean Airlines plane to Skopje airport -vs of the Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister Bujar Osmani getting off the plane together with Panos Nicolaidis, Air Ground Operations Director at Aegean Airlines -vs of the official welcome ceremony at the airport -SOT Panos Nicolaidis, Air Ground Operations Director at Aegean Airlines (in English) -SOT Bujar Osmani, Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister: „The direct connection between Athens and Skopje shows in the best syimbolical way that the relations between these two neighbouring countries are getting warmer in our strategic partnership. I wish to use this opportunity to give my gratitude to the representatives of the Aegean Airlines and others who contributed to bridging the distance between Athens and Skopje.“