[size=75:34tm0p2u]novinite 23 March 2010

Bulgaria Airport Traffic Trebles in 8 Years

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Passenger numbers at Bulgaria's three main international airports trebled from 2,2 M in 2000 to over 6,6 million in 2008, before falling by 9% in 2009 to just over 6,0 M travelers.

Growth has focused primarily on Sofia since 2004, while traffic to the Black Sea summer destinations of Burgas and Varna has not grown as dramatically, according to anna.aero web site.

Varna was the busier of the two Black Sea airports until 2003, but by 2009 Burgas was handling some 40% more passengers. During the first two months of 2010, Sofia’s traffic has remained at the same level as 2009.

While Sofia’s traffic is year-round, thanks to serving as the gateway to the Bulgarian ski market, Burgas and Varna are much more seasonal. In summer 2009, Burgas’ peak month of July saw the airport handle 50% more passengers than Sofia in its peak month of August.

In 2009, the UK was responsible for around 18% of the traffic at Burgas airport, with 306 000 passengers. About 85% of these were traveling on charter flights operated by both UK and Bulgarian carriers.

This winter the only scheduled services at Burgas are with Wizz Air to London Luton and with Bulgaria Air to Sofia via Varna. Varna has a few more scheduled services in winter including flights to Budapest, Moscow and Vienna.