[size=75:33e5ccxq]Sofia echo 25 January 2010

Sofia Airport reports 6% drop in flight numbers in 2009


As the curtains close on 2009, Sofia Airport has unveiled statistics for the year, showing an overall drop in activity for 2009 as a result of the global economic downturn, Dnevnik daily reported on January 25 2010.

Freight dropped 19 per cent by weight and passenger numbers levels were down by three per cent.

About 73 per cent of all flights were international and domestic flights accounted for five per cent, the rest being charter flights. There was a 23 per cent passenger increase in domestic flights, the report said.

Furthermore, Bulgarian air carriers accounted for a 44 per cent increase in charter flights in 2009.

Statistically, the Sofia Airport said that the top five carriers in 2009 were Bulgaria Air, which ferried about 26 per cent of all passengers, followed by no-frills airline Wizz Air with 16 per cent, Lufthansa with 11 per cent, easyJet and Austrian Airlines with eight and six per cent, respectively.

In 2009, flights to and from four new destination were launched by Sofia Airport. Three flights operated by Wizz Air to and from Treviso, Charleroi and Eindhoven, and a Hamburg International airlines started operating from Sofia to Berlin (Shonefeld).

Interesting - Hopefully now we are beginning to hear that the global economic is improving slightly pehaps the flights might pick up again this summer

Oddy