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Sofia Airport Click here to view your quick list
The main airport in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a hub for Bulgaria Air and Hemus Air. It handled 2.2 million passengers in 2006, and 2.7 million passengers in 2007
t: view phone (+3592) 937-2211 (+3592) 937-2212
w: http://www.sofia-airport.bg
Sofia Airport offers the following products and/or services:
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»» Airports (0)History
Bulgaria did not stand aloof from the rapid development of aviation in 20-ies and 30-ies of XX-th century. In the beginning, aircraft took off and landed on natural ground. The first airfield in the city of Sofia was located in the place of today’s central railway station.
The first commercial air transportation services took place in 1922. Test flights were successfully conducted carrying post along two routes: Sofia-Gorna Oryahovitsa-Varna-Ruse and Sofia-Plovdiv-Yambol-Burgas, thus tracing out the first domestic lines.
Later Bulgaria was among the first states to sign the founding Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation.
In the early 30-ies, flights took off for the first time from the natural runway in the area near the village of Vrazhdebna, later chosen for the construction of the capital airport following a decree of Tsar Boris III of 16th September 1937. This is the birthday of Sofia Airport, which has now walked a long way to its 70th anniversary.
The airport was constructed under the guidance of the Directorate of Civil Aviation to the Ministry of Railways, Posts and Telegraphs.
The first reception building of Sofia Airport was opened in 1939. Two years later, it had a complete airfield with an unpaved runway, and nine years later - its first 1050 m long concrete runway.
In 1949, the Bulgarian-Russian aviation union TABKO was set up to bind together the civil aircraft fleet and the commercial airports. It was then that the first international scheduled flights connected Sofia with other European capitals.
Between 1951 and 1965, improvements were made in stages to the passenger terminal building, which was modernised, and the runway, which was extended to 2720 m to accommodate large turbo-jet aircraft.
In the following years, the traffic of Sofia grew at a fast rate and necessitated multiple increase of the capacity. A separate terminal building was erected for domestic flights to Varna, Burgas, Ruse, Gorna Oryahovitsa, Targovishte, and later another new building for international flights. The runway was rehabilitated several times and modern aeronautical aids were installed to meet the rapidly changing demands of the modern jet aircraft in civil aviation.
In the early 90-ies, economic transformations began in Bulgaria based on the principles of market development of the economy. With a decision of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria Sofia Airport became identified as an independent company.
Eight years later, a master plan was approved for the extension and modernisation of the existing infrastructure of the capital airport, with a main objective to prepare Sofia Airport to meet the new market challenges and ensure adequate capacity for the fast developing aviation industry providing a new level of customer service, safety and security of flights.
Sofia Airport in XXI-th century
Terminal 2
Sofia Airport will celebrate its 70th anniversary with a new image. The new Terminal 2, with its modern architectural design resembling a spaceship landed amid the Sofia plain, opened doors on 27th December 2006, on the eve of Bulgaria's accession to the European Union.
The central building rests on a total area of 56 500 sq. m., its pier stretching out to 200 m with 7 passenger loading air bridges on the sides. The access to the eight levels of the terminal building is facilitated by 12 elevators and 7 escalators. A passageway connects the halls to the parking garage of 800 spaces.
Terminal 2 also has commercial units on a total area of 4000 sq.m, which offer passengers a variety of services - restaurants, cafe-bars, shops, tourist and rent-a-car services, banks and bureaus de change. The automated baggage handling system with integrated four-level security control, thirty-four check-in desks, and the modern flight information display system are only part of the facilities providing high level of customer service to 2000 passengers per peak hour.
Terminal 1
This terminal, which is well known to the inbound/ outbound passengers in Sofia, now has a new name - Terminal 1. It was built in the first half of XXth century, extended and improved many times, fundamentally renovated in 2000, still making, though, curious allusions to the latest history of the continent. Terminal 1 offers easy access, simple procedures and efficient services up to the modern airport standard.
The total annual throughput of both terminals at Sofia Airport is 4.4 million passengers, with Terminal 2 having been designed to allow for further expansions in line with the demands of the growing traffic over the next decade.
Runway System
On 31st August 2006, Sofia Airport set its new runway system to operation, replacing the old and out-of-date facilities. The new runway is offset at 210 m to the north of the old runway, with the eastern end of its 3600 m long strip crossing over the Iskar river bed on a specially constructed bridge. New rapid and connecting taxiways are built additionally to open way for 200 aircraft movements per hour at a high level of safety. The navigational aids installed on the new runway enable landing operations under low visibility conditions at category III of the ICAO standards.
Two de-icing platforms are constructed to allow centralised de-icing procedures in winter, They are just an element of the overall strategy of Sofia Airport for environmental protection and reduction of the harmful effects resulting from the airport operations.
As a commercial enterprise, Sofia Airport performs several business activities in parallel with its main role as a designated airport operator.
The Ground Handling activities are most contributory to the commercial revenues. Sofia Airport EAD holds all necessary licences, ground service equipment, trained and certified staff.
Today we provide passenger, baggage, aircraft, cargo and mail handling services to more than 65 air companies operating to and from Sofia. The fuel farm is maintained by the airport and the aircraft are refuelled by our trucks.
Additional security services are offered for risky flights, valuable and special shipments, sealing and guarding of aircraft upon customers' request.
Using highly qualified staff, Sofia Airport applies modern handling technologies and flexible price policy to establish long term partnerships based on mutual interest and common targets-flight safety, on-time performance, high quality standards, clients' satisfaction.
Sofia Airport EAD is a licensed operator of the duty-free and travel-retail shops in both passenger terminals. Our retail strategy is aimed at offering a large variety of products and services which are best fitting to the needs and profile of our international and domestic travellers.
Sofia Airport is the biggest international airport in the country with over 5 million visitors annually - passengers, meeters and greeters, personnel. Such public is attractive for every provider to advertise services and goods offered on the local market. Sofia Airport has organised modern advertisement displays strategically located in the most attractive places in and outside the terminals which makes the communication campaigns on site highly effective.
Market trends
In The last five years, Sofia Airport has enjoyed a dynamic, double-digit annual traffic growth. This positive trends ranks it among the fastest developing airports in Europe. In2006, over 2.2 million passengers handled – twice as much as the previous year. The first quarter of the jubilee – year brought us the happy news of another 23 per cent increase of passenger numbers and 20 per cent of handled freight.
Sofia Airport is the only airport in Bulgaria with a wide network of year round scheduled flights. Today, Sofia is linked by direct air routes with more than 50 destinations in Central, Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. These routes are served by over 40 Bulgarian and foreign airlines.
The international scheduled services account for more than 70 per cent of flights and about 90 percent of passengers at Sofia Airport.
We are glad to see how quickly the domestic air services are recovering. The number of passengers carried between Sofia and Varna in the first three month of this year was 50 percent more than for same period of 2006.
The new winter tourist routes to the Bulgarian ski resorts via Sofia Airport, and the developing outbound summer tourism contribute to the growth of seasonal charters where passengers represent 6 percent of the total airport traffic.
The most intensively expanding sector at Sofia Airport for the last two years has been Business Aviation. With an 80 percent share, it already holds the second place in the aircraft movements distribution.
