The portal Infomax published a text claiming that the Government had not yet closed down the Skopje airport because it had forgotten to announce its decision at yesterday’s session (held on 16.03.2020) in the Official Gazette. It is said that the airport is still open and there would be passengers until tomorrow evening (18.03.2020).
Only one word written in the wrong context in this text is true. And that is, the airport will operate until tomorrow evening (18.03.2020), until midnight, when all 48 hours stipulated by all international protocols for airport closures are due. Minister Venko Filipce announced this at 9 pm yesterday and the decision was published in the Official Gazette.
According to all these facts we can conclude that the Government made a decision on 16.03.2020 and published the decision in the Official Gazette on the same day, thus denying the misinformation published the following day on the portal Infomax.
The TAV Airport in Skopje has also announced that the airport will operate until tomorrow (18.03.2020) at midnight.
North Macedonia is no exception to this. There are already international examples of airport closures at 48 hours’ notice. The United States, Germany, Canada (only one out of 4 airports is open), Norway, Denmark, Poland, Ukraine are just some of the countries that followed international protocols regarding the 48-hour airport closure announcement.
