[size=75:36551xx8]Dnevnik 21 December 2009
Siberia Airlines to fly from Plovdiv
S7 Airlines (Siberia Airlines), Russia's largest airline on domestic routes, will launch flights from Bulgaria’s southern city of Plovdiv to Moscow, said Bulgarian transport minister Kamen Kichev.
The carrier will operate weekly flights to Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, with return fares ranging between EUR 290 to 920.
At the moment, the airliner flies once a week to Bulgaria’s Varna, on the northern Black Sea coast.
Meanwhile, the transport ministry plans to invite a competition to pick a carrier to operate regular flights between Plovdiv and Baku. The move will form part of the facility’s development strategy, which involves also a 40% reduction in airport fees from April 2010 in a bid to draw in more carriers, Kichev said.
Minister Aleksandar Tsvetkov said the ministry is considering seeking a concessionaire for Terminal 1 at Sofia Airport, the nation’s busiest airport, which is being used by charter and no-frills operators.
The ministry plans to invite investors from Europe and the Middle East as well as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank.