The Bulgarian tourist company Guliver is still taking reservations for its Sofia – Skopje flight, but it is operating at a loss. The direct flight was inaugurated last month as a major part of the push to improve relations between the two countries, but it ran largely empty planes.

Government officials were on board the first flight and promised to subsidize the line to make it worth while. TV crews reported on the flight as being empty, and slower and costlier than taking the car, even after accounting for the very bad state of the road between the two countries.