MAT Macedonian Airlines

MAT "Macedonian" Airlines
Founded	1994
Hubs	Skopje Airport
Focus cities	Ohrid Airport
Alliance	Jat Airways
Fleet size	1
Destinations	0
Headquarters	Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
Key people	Mr. Zlatko Petrovski president of MAT’s Board of Directors ; Saša Vlaisavljević CEO JAT Airways
Website	http://www.mat.com.mk/

MAT Macedonian Airlines (Macedonian: Македонски Авио Транспорт, Latin alphabet: Makedonski Avio Transport) is the national flag carrier airline of the Republic of Macedonia, based in Skopje. It operates scheduled services between Skopje and Ohrid and several destinations in Europe. Its main base is Skopje Airport.^[1]

History

Macedonian Airlines was established on 16 January 1994 and started operations on 23 June 1994 flying from Skopje to Zürich using a Boeing 737-200.

In 2000 the Government of the Republic of Macedonia signed an agreement with MAT that gave MAT the status of National flag carrier for the following 10 years. MAT Macedonian Airlines is a share holding private Company, owned by two major stockholders.^[1]

In 2007 MAT introduced electronic tickets available for purchase over the internet. The electronic ticket offers our customers an easy and simple way for purchasing a ticket and traveling. ^[2]

On the 31st of 10/2008 MAT received its first Boeing 737-500 aircraft. This latest addition has a 126 seats capacity divided in two cabin classes (business and economy) and 4 tons capacity for baggage and cargo. The registration of the aircraft is Z3-AAK and it is carrying MAT traditional colors.^[3]

In December 2008, the airline was forced to give up its services from Skopje to Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Rome after Eurocontrol banned the carrier from entering German and Italian airspace because of unpaid air traffic control fees from period 1999 to 2005. [1].

MAT Airlines is also banned from Greek airspace, because of the Macedonia naming dispute. Although this year Greek and Macedonian states agreed on Macedonian and Greek aircraft entering each other airspace but Macedonian registered aircraft can not land in any Greek airports. ^[4]

MAT Macedonian Airlines Bombardier CRJ-900 at Skopje Airport

In 2009, MAT will dismiss 70 of 180 employees and will change its airplanes to reduce costs.^[5].

On 20 March 2009 Jat Airways, the national flag carrier airline of Serbia announced its intentions of taking over a majority of shares in MAT Macedonian Airlines.

The Boeing 737-500 was grounded by Macedonian CAA and stored at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport from 14 May 2009 till 4 July 2009. On September 1st, 2009, MAT has lost it's AOC.

Planned takeover by Jat

MAT Macedonian Airlines and Jat Airways signed the Intention agreement on finding the best business solution for the future cooperation between the two national carriers of Republic of Macedonia and Serbia. Both companies stated that the interest is shown for establishing various forms of cooperation, from technical to commercial.

In the year 2008 Alexander The Great Airport provided service to more than 660.000 passengers while MAT served 37 per cent on the flights to Zurich, Vienna, Dusseldorf, Rome, Istanbul, Hamburg, Berlin and Amsterdam and Jat served 10 per cent. By improving the companies’ partnership, services for the Macedonian passengers will gain additional possibilities.

The agreement was signed in Belgrade by Jat Acting Director General Sasa Vlaisavljevic and the president of MAT’s Board of Directors, Zlatko Petrovski.^[6]

Despite MAT recently being grounded by aviation authorities in Macedonia, Jat’s CEO has confirmed that the Serbian carrier will take over shares and revive the national Macedonian carrier. Jat’s team of legal experts are currently in Skopje where they are checking MAT’s legal and financial documentation. These checks should be complete within a week. The findings will be presented to Jat’s management board, after which, the Serbian carrier will send MAT a proposal whether it will take over a majority of shares (over 50%) or less than 50% of shares. The documentation checks have taken longer than expected because MAT did not immediately provide all the necessary paperwork. Also, Jat’s legal team requested more information regarding MAT’s financial reports. Jat’s CEO confirmed that MAT has extreme debt but declined to comment further. He stated that Jat is primarily interested in the Macedonian aviation market which is covered 35% by MAT, while Jat has a share of 10% in the market. “We are also interested in commencing flights from Belgrade and Skopje to Priština through MAT”, Saša Vlaisavljević, the airline’s CEO says. Jat is currently banned from flying to Priština due to the unresolved status of Kosovo in which Priština is located.^[7]

Destinations

As of May 2009 all MAT Macedonian Airlines flights are suspended until takeover by JAT Airways of Serbia is completed. All flights from Skopje and Ohrid are now operated by JAT via Belgrade Nikola Tesla International Airport. Jat has also increased flights from daily to twice daily with Boeing 737-300 and ATR-72 aircraft from both Macedonian cities. ^[8]

Planned Destinations

Kosovo
- Pristina International Airport (Pristina International Airport) - Planned to operate Belgrade-Skopje-Pristina on behalf of Jat Airways which is currently banned from entering the airspace above Kosovo.
Greece
- Thessaloniki Makedonia International Airport - Planned to open after Jat takeover under a new brand name possibly MAT Airways