SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Direct flights between Macedonia and Greece are set to resume after more than a decade, amid a thaw in relations following a deal to rename Macedonia “North Macedonia.” Macedonian Deputy Prime…

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Direct flights between Macedonia and Greece are set to resume after more than a decade, amid a thaw in relations following a deal to rename Macedonia “North Macedonia.”

Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister Bujar Osmani plans to be on the first flight from Athens to Macedonia’s capital of Skopje on Thursday evening. “As neighbouring countries it was long needed and will be greatly welcomed by the business community.”

The service, to be operated by Greece’s largest carrier, Aegean Airlines, will see flights resume twice weekly. SKOPJE, Macedonia — Macedonia and Greece are to restart direct flights after more than a decade, amid a thaw in relations following a deal to rename Macedonia “North Macedonia.”

Skopje and Athens had a direct air link from 2003-2007, but it was stopped after Macedonia’s previous conservative government named Skopje’s airport after the ancient Greek warrior king Alexander the Great, angering Athens. Macedonia’s prime minister Zoran Zaev removed the name in February in a goodwill gesture to Greece, as the countries sought to overcome a 27-year dispute over the ex-Yugoslav republic’s name and what Athens called its wrongful claim to the legacy of Alexander. In June the Macedonian government agreed to rename the country North Macedonia but the deal requires a complicated ratification process.
Commercial air travel resumes between Greece and Macedonia for the first time since 2006.