Lufthansa is closing its direct Skopje - Frankfurt route after more than three years of operation. The German aviation giant launched the line in April 2023 with state subsidies, and in recent seasons ran between 7 and 10 weekly flights in summer - and only three in winter. Now: gone.

All flights have been pulled from the booking system for both the summer and winter schedules, the latter starting on 25 October. Passengers wanting to fly to Frankfurt will now have to change in Vienna and continue with Austrian Airlines - itself part of the same Lufthansa Group. Alternatively, Wizz Air still flies to Hahn Airport, around 125 kilometres from Frankfurt.

Why? Lufthansa frames it as "cost reduction and concentration on more profitable routes." In plain language: Skopje doesn't pay. The airline is dealing with staff strikes, the wind-down of its Cityline subsidiary, grounded aircraft and uncertainty over fuel prices driven by Middle East tensions.

Skopje Airport isn't alone in this - Lufthansa is also cutting routes to Belgrade and Ljubljana, and slashing hundreds of weekly flights from its Frankfurt and Munich hubs. But for Macedonia, the blow lands harder. Germany is one of the largest destinations for the Macedonian diaspora, and the direct line was a symbol of "normal" air connectivity with the EU.

The question worth asking is simple: what did the Macedonian government actually do with the subsidies? First you pay for the route, then the route stops working, then the route disappears. Who answers for picking a partner that turned out to be unstable? Who lined up alternatives? Did the state ever have a Plan B, or did it just live on the hope that Lufthansa would stay out of sentiment?

For Macedonian passengers, every Vienna change means a minimum 90 extra minutes per journey and typically 60-100 euros on top of the fare. That's the cost of Germany's long-term aviation strategy. And it's the cost we pay every time we head to work in Germany or come home for the holidays.