An Athens-Skopje air link was resumed on Thursday, with an Olympic Air passenger jet taking off from the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport for the capital of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM).
The Olympic brand is still used by its parent company, Aegean Airlines.
The resumption of direct air service between the two Balkan capitals attracted media attention by Reuters and the Guardian, among others, months after the governments of the two neighboring states signed a provisional agreement to resolve the long-standing fYRoM “name issue”.
Bujar Osmani, the deputy prime minister for European affairs in the Zaev coalition government, was on hand on Thursday afternoon for a brief ceremony seeing off the crew and passengers on the roughly one-hour flight to Skopje.
Afterwards, Osmani held talks with Greek Alternate FM Giorgos Katrougalos.
The last direct air link between Skopje and Athens was more than a decade ago.
