Macedonia’s newest charter airline, Mat Airways, will be operating its flights under the Aviogenex code (AGX). Darko Milačić, one of the founders of Mat Airways, revealed the news in a recent interview to the “Kielo” agency. The inauguration of services has been pushed back to August when the airline plans to commence flights from Skopje (although Mat’s aircraft will be operating charters from Belgrade to other destinations in the meantime). Milačić revealed that the airline is currently not interested in becoming the national carrier of Macedonia, rather it plans to develop scheduled charter flights. However, Milačić does not exclude the possibility of the airline eventually becoming a national carrier.
“We are in the process of acquiring an IATA certificate and we expect the process to be complete within the next 5 months. We will be using Aviogenex’s code for our flights”, Milačić said. He also disclosed that Kon Tiki Travel, the founder of the new Mat, is interested in setting up an airline in Serbia and purchasing Aviogenex, a Serbian charter airline. Furthermore, the company plans to purchase a Boeing B737-300 jet by the end of the year, although this purchase would depend on the outcome of Aviogenex’s takeover.
For starters, Mat plans to operate the service Belgrade – Ohrid – Tel Aviv. Darko Milačić believes that the service would be popular and said that an Israeli tour operator is also interested in cooperating on the route.
On the left hand side you can register your vote whether you believe that Mat Airways will be successful or a disaster waiting to happen.
Photo published with the approval of the author, the “aviokarta.net” portal
sounds to me like another money laundring airline....
ReplyDeletei read the interview as well. i would assume from BEG via SKP/OHD to other destinations would work better. Would be nice for another airline in BEG since JAT is the only scheduled airline based in BEG since Centavia went into bankrupcy.
ReplyDeletefunny how the website has serbian but written in croatian!
Not professional at all...where is the strategy? Not "clean" at all...most probably something very different behind it. Don't see them flying in 2011.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest money laundring airline is JAT Airways.
ReplyDeleteKon Tiki is a big tour opearator and it have need for numerous charter flights during the whole year. They are fed up with JAT craziness and so called professionalism.
In other hand it is wery expensive to have own airline. Ii think that they probably try to combine lowcost model and charter. Difficult to predict their chances
Is this livery on aircraft thrue? It's so bad realy bad... It's a mix of ex Mat new Mat (sicker on fuselage) and Kon Tiki Sky... Boring...boring like Jat c/s...
ReplyDeleteI do not understand why do we bring Jat into this?
ReplyDeleteFirst of all Jat is not a money laundering company any more and second of all even if they were to sell tickets to Tel-Aviv who in their right mind would fly on them? We don't even know what kind of safety record they have or how well their planes are serviced. Jat might not be the most esthetic airline in the game but when it comes to safety there is no comparison.
Anonymous 5,
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more, it is a messy livery.
If it is going to be a scheduled charter airline, it should really keep the name MAT Airways or Kontiki Sky and remove the flag as the flag is more better suited for a national airline rather than a charter airline.
Although I wish the airline all the best, I would rather prefer if Macedonia established a flag carrier and simply called "Macedonian Airways" or Air Macedonia with a better strategy and new Boeing or airbus aircraft.
Does anybody know whether Macedonia is considering a national airline and whether anyone realises that Macedonia is highly under serviced.
TLV via OHD!? There's already JUs service to TLV and it ain't good, I must say :)and the livery is questionable indeed...
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see them flying! :)
ReplyDeleteJAT is scheduled airline, Mat Airways will probably fly BEG-OHD-TLV with agreement with some agency. As written:
"...and said that an Israeli tour operator is also interested in cooperating on the route."
Balkan bussines...try to find out something about Global Metropoliten group (co-owner of MAT)in Belgrade and you will see....just another affair, sooner ar later! Serious people would never work with this team!
ReplyDeleteInteresting pic, logo on tail :)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ekapija.com/website/sr/page/327684
Serious people flying with JAT Airways! Best airline with best service.
ReplyDelete1.01.1955.
"Serious people flying with JAT Airways! Best airline with best service."
ReplyDelete?
And the point is...? MAT and jat are in no way competitors. Also, serious people fly with Turkish Airlines or Lufthansa, go take a walk between check-in lines and you'll see it with your own eyes.
"Best airline with best service"? You missed "THE" (THE best... with THE best...). However, jat is very, very far away from the best service. Low average would be suitable description when they are at their best.
Let's concetrate on little something refreshing - Mat Airways / Kon Tiki Sky :)
Guys looks like the airline has changed again, looks so bad! But it is now allowed to fly to Greece!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.airpics.net/photo/Z3-AAM-Boeing-737-500-MAT-Macedonian-Airlines/13336/L
photo above.
BEG-OHD-TLV its money wasting, can’t be worst option. I cant see any money making , firstly: what connection you have from TLV to rest of the world? Very limited. I would do :
ReplyDeleteBEG-SKP-AUH-SKP-BEG 2 times a week (or once at the beginning) to be competitor on the current JU / BEG-DXB , they will kill the current market from aus/nz , taking all the passengers from TK,TG,SQ,LX,QF,BA,CX also they might work in code share with EY and EK .
Maybe later introducing once a week BEG-SKP-DOH -SKP-BEG and do code share with QR. On that way we will have 5 times a week flight to middle east , covering 3 major cities. Just to remind everyone VS announce flights from BNE and SYD to AUH , so many Balkans who live aus/nz will love to fly on VS to AUH and then continuing to SKP or BEG with MAT or whatever the new name is. So don’t go to TLV go from DXB,AUH and DOH… there are the money.