Summer is near and a few months remain until the beginning of two major sporting events – XXX Summer Olympics in London and the European Championship in Poland and Ukraine, both of which are to attract millions of visitors. Traditionally, airlines serving the Bulgarian market are already actively preparing for the upcoming summer season.
Particularly dynamic will be the situation at Sofia Airport. Indeed, it does not depend so much on tourists as the airports in coastline Varna and Burgas, but this time summer destinations will be very important for the capital city after at the end of last year Turkish company Pegasus Airlines, Danish Cimber Sterling, Switzerland’s Swiss and Hungarian national carrier Malev suspended their flights to and from Sofia. Logically, this affected the financial performance of Bulgaria’s largest international airport.
In the first quarter of 2012 the Sofia Airport serviced a total of 10,230 aircraft, by 900 fewer than in the corresponding period of 2011, the airport’s management announced. This gap, however, can largely be caught up with in the coming months. In any case, grounds for optimism are not missing. Since the beginning of April, everyone can again fly directly from Sofia to Budapest via Wizz Air. Flight and the route is serviced three times a week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
In June, Italy’s Air One will also carry out flights to Sofia. In early March it announced a promotion for their tickets at the destination Sofia – Venice – Sofia at a price of EUR 0 (fees not included).
The bad news is that the Czech airline CSA announced it would stop its flights from Prague to Sofia. In fact this will happen on May 27, and Bulgaria Air seized the opportunity to service this destination. On March 25 the company again started flying this route six days a week (except for Saturdays).
Bulgaria Air now offers scheduled flights to Larnaca and Paphos in Cyprus from March 31 to June 14 every Saturday.
Another proposal of Bulgaria Air is certainly intriguing for students travelling overseas. For the period from April 7 to June 22 the carrier launched combined flights with Virgin Atlantic from Sofia to New York, Boston, Washington, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Orlando at prices from EUR676 to EUR762 euros (depending on the destination ) with all taxes included. Otherwise, the top destination of Sofia Airport remains London. For 2011 a total of 190,000 passengers flew the route. Not surprisingly, it is covered by four carriers – British Airways and Bulgaria Air, both flying to Heathrow, Easy Jet Airline – to Gatwick and Wizz Air landing at Luton. It can be expected this year that the number of passengers flying to Britain will be increased due to the upcoming Olympics.
The top three destinations from Sofia include also Vienna – with nearly 100,000 passengers last year, and Paris, where 70,000 people travelled to and from.
Undoubtedly the liveliest in summer will be the airports in Varna and Burgas. Despite the misunderstandings around Alma Tour last season, the Ministry of Economy and Energy said they expected 20 percent more Russian speaking tourists to visit Bulgaria, compared with the 600,000 welcomed in 2011. And the vast majority of this flow will land par avion. Specifically, Russian S7 Airlines will fly in the summer season from Moscow’s airport Domodedovo to Bourgas every day. Flights linking Burgas and St. Petersburg will be operated by Rossia air carrier.
Great news for Burgas is that for the first time the German carrier Lufthansa will fly this summer directly to the airport in Sarafovo. The company had planned flights from Dusseldorf, and the first is expected to take place on May 13. The destination will be serviced every Sunday until early October.
Norway’s Norwegian will fly from Oslo to Bourgas from April to October every Friday. From June to mid-August the carrier will fly also to Varna. Flights between Varna and Vienna are carried out by Austrian Airlines five times a week. On March 27 Wizz Air started operating flights to and from London (Luton).
Indeed, the big change for Bulgaria’s seaside airports will take place next summer. Then the new passenger terminal buing now built by the concessionaire Fraport, will be open to public. Expectations are that the new facilities will help increase the number of carriers that will operate from Burgas and Varna, and hence – the number of passengers.
