The set of changes that Bulgaria’s previous government made to the Civil Aviation Act, are to be felt this summer, because to the Sofia Airport were transferred the maintenance costs of the Civil Aviation Administration Directorate General.
The current Cabinet of Mr. Oresharski has already approved the resulting changes in the Ordinance regulating the fees for the use of public airports, which will be available for public comment on the site strategy.bg up until August 11. But since these are only formal steps, they will certainly be passed.
In this case, the ordinance creates a new Article 1a, which obliges the operator of the largest airport in the country to bear the costs of the independent supervisory authority or, in other words, those of Civil Aviation Administration. This will provide the necessary resources without additional burden the state budget. In reality, however, Sofia Airport will not take the money out of its own pocket, gathering the sum from carriers that operate at the airport. They in turn inevitably will calculate the fees onto price of their tickets. In addition to the current fees two more are now added – one for noise or the so-called environmental tax and a second one: security charge.
Before publishing the draft amendments to the Ordinance on fees, the amounts collected by the capital city’s airport were a complete mystery. What was only known was the method for their formation, but the actual calculation were within the skills of only the best specialists in aviation. Now everything is made transparent. For example, it is clear that the landing fee varies between 9.9 and 14.3 euros per tonne, depending on the size of the aircraft. Out of it, at least 0.05 euros will go to the support the white-collars of the supervisory department. For comparison, these charges at seaside airports in Varna and Burgas are significantly lower, starting from 7.4 euros per tonne for the heaviest aircraft and reaching up to 10 euros – for the smallest planes.
Separately for each passenger passing through Terminal 2 of Sofia Airport flying on international routes additional 11 euros will be paid. For passengers on internal flights the fare is 6 euros and users of Terminal 1 will be charged 4.4 euros, regardless of the direction in which they fly. Varna and Burgas ask for 8 euros per passenger in the summer and 6 euros in winter, while the tariff for domestic passengers is 1.5 euros all the year round.
The Security charge is to be paid by each departing or transit passenger. There is, however, a grace period: until 30 September, only one euro per passenger will be paid, then up until 31 March 2014 the charge jumps to 8 euros while after that it will increase further to 10.2 euros.
The BANKER
