The Ministry of Transport and Communications of Macedonia has announced it will earmark MKD104 million Macedonian Denar (USD1.99 million) in direct funding to support airlines serving the country in 2018.

"Considering that the agreement with the current company that receives financial support from the government expires in 2018, we plan to announce a new public call for all interested LCCs," Minister Goran Sugareski said during the presentation of the 2018 state budget this past week.

The former Yugoslav republic initiated a policy of supporting budget carriers out of the state budget in 2012 when it signed the first contract with Wizz Air (W6, Budapest). The agreement was then extended for another three years in 2015. According to the official EU tenders register, the value of this contract, which runs until 2018, is EUR600,000 (USD706,000).

According to the ch-aviation capacity module, Wizz Air is by far the largest airline in the country with a market share of 62.5% of the weekly seats available. It currently operates 71x weekly frequencies out of Skopje and 3x weekly flights out of Ohrid.