28 New Air Routes from Skopje and Ohrid: The List Is Good, but the Second Number Is Missing

Paris, Barcelona, Lyon, Amsterdam, Ljubljana, Dubai, Madrid, Stockholm, Cologne, Bari, Prague, Larnaca, Naples, Budapest, Alghero in Sardinia and Palermo in Sicily. From Ohrid - Istanbul, Basel, Larnaca, Madrid, Stuttgart, Bari, Stockholm, Katowice, Wroclaw, Milan, Bratislava and Vienna.

A total of 28 new air destinations, introduced since this government took office. The figure was announced by VMRO-DPMNE MP Lidija Petkoska at a press conference.

"Air connectivity matters for every modern and developed country. It means easier travel for citizens, more opportunities for tourism and business, and greater openness of Macedonia towards Europe and the world," Petkoska said.

The list genuinely is good. For a country with two airports and a population smaller than many European cities, twelve direct routes out of Ohrid are not marketing - they are a real change for anyone who until now had to travel via Sofia, Thessaloniki or Belgrade.

What the statement leaves out

The number of destinations is one metric. It is not the only one. How many of those routes fly year-round, and how many only in season? How many are subsidised, and with how much public money? What does the average passenger pay, and has that price come down since the route launched?

None of these questions is answered by a list of cities. And they are precisely the difference between connectivity and a press conference.

Petkoska pointed out that the new routes make it easier to travel for work, education and tourism, as well as to visit family living outside the country. That is true - and it is the strongest argument in the whole story, because most of the traffic at Macedonian airports is still people leaving and coming back, not tourists arriving.

Next time a number gets announced, it is worth announcing the second one too: how many people actually boarded each of those routes.