By unwritten tradition the busiest months for aviation industry are before the start of the summer tourist season. Each carrier is looking to launch new lines with which to attract the attention of customers and all sorts of promotions are on offer. In Bulgaria, this trend is particularly pronounced because of the influx of tourists from other parts of Europe, and the trend more Bulgarians to be visiting exotic destinations, which opens up additional opportunities for airlines.
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The schedule of our biggest airport of the country endash the one in Sofia endash shows that t this summer it will offer 43 direct lines to other European capitals and large cities that would be served by 19 airlines. For the entire period – from March 31 to 27 October at the airport is expected to fly over 9700 passenger aircraft with a total capacity of over 1,334,000 seats.
However, the proposals for summer 2013 are few. EasyJet low-cost company has already launched three weekly flights to Berlin airport Tegel. It offers a regular service to the London airport Stansted, which is served by two aircraft per week.
One of the biggest players in the local market – Wizz Air, relied on the interest in Bulgaria from the former Soviet republics and as of 6 July makes it possible to fly directly to and from Kiev airport Zhulyany.
Much interest will be paid to the
debut of the Spanish airline Vueling
that of 26 June set foot in the country with regular flights to Barcelona on Mondays and Thursdays. Vueling will be the third low-cost airline operating from Terminal 1 of the Sofia Airport. Apart from that, the number of flights to Istanbul, Amsterdam, London (Heathrow), Larnaca, Paris (Beauvais), Dortmund, Eindhoven and others is increasing.
The most convenient daily connections from Sofia Airport are to Vienna – 35 flights a week offered by two airlines. The most popular destination – London is operated by 30 flights per week, as travelers have a choice between four airports and four carriers. Flights to the capital city of Germany, Berlin, this season will be 18 per week, to Rome and Paris – 16, and to Brussels – 13. Thee times daily will be the flights to Munich, while Bucharest will be offered by two air careers with a total of 11 flights every seven days.
Another popular destination remains the Greek capital Athens. The destination is served by 10 flights a week after Bulgaria Air recently signed an agreement for co-operation with Olympic Airlines. A similar contract was signed earlier with the Cyprus Airways, the goal is to maximize the occupancy rate of the new aircraft of the Bulgarian carrier endash Embraer and Airbus.
Otherwise, more than once a day one can fly from Sofia to Amsterdam, Moscow, Madrid, Milan. Since the beginning of the summer schedule, however, the flights to Venice – Treviso were suspended.
Of course,
the busiest preparations now are
taking place at the Black Sea airports of Varna and Burgas. New passenger terminals there, the construction of which the concessionaire Fraport invested over 70 million euros, are expected to be opened this season. The exact date for the opening has not yet been scheduled, but the recently released public procurement documents show that the developer may have some doubts about the quality of the work of Turkish consortium TIE – ICHTASH, which can lead to some delays.
The BANKER
