MAT Macedonian Airlines

IATA	ICAO	Callsign
IN	MAK	MAKAVIO

Founded

1994

Ceased operations

1 September 2009

Operating bases

Ohrid Airport
Skopje Airport

Fleet size

Destinations

Headquarters

Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

Key people

Zlatko Petrovski (President)

Website

www.mat.com.mk

MAT Macedonian Airlines (Macedonian: Македонски Авиотранспорт (МАТ), tr: Makedonski Aviotransport (MAT)) was the national flag carrier airline of the Republic of Macedonia. It operated scheduled services between Skopje and Ohrid and several destinations in Europe. It was based in Skopje with its main base at Skopje Airport.

Macedonian Air Transport 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 Air Transport is a share holding private Company, owned by two major stockholders.

In 2007 MAT introduced electronic tickets available for purchase over the internet.

On 31 October 2008, MAT received its first Boeing 737-500 aircraft. The aircraft had 126 seats divided in two cabin classes (business and economy) and 4 tons capacity for baggage and cargo. The registration of the aircraft was Z3-AAH and it is carrying MAT traditional colors.

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.

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.

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Wikipedia