Sofia Airport Plans New Jumbo jet Air bridges

Sofia airport will be equipped with new jet bridges that will board big aircraft like Boeing 747, IL-86 and IL-96. Terminal 2 will have a jet bridge in 2011, said Chief Operating Officer of the Airport Nikolay Kabakchiev. Currently the airport of the Bulgarian capital has seven jet bridges that allow passengers to pass from the passenger cabin to the terminal gates. However, now the jumbo jets’ passengers use air-stairs and then are bussed to the terminals. Apart from passenger bridges Sofia airport is planning to build two new taxiways and two runways. Thus the put-out capacity of a runway (which is now 25 aircraft/hour) will be increased. Bus stops at Terminal 2 will be renovated and passenger flows will be eased.
The Sofia airport has already met the requirement to separate the passengers travelling to the Schengen countries from the passengers travelling to the rest of the world. By 2011, the airport’s departures lounge will be expanded by another nine or ten sq.m to facilitate passenger handling, and small aprons for smaller private aircraft will be built.
Business aviation is one of the sectors to be developed on the Bulgarian market, Nikolay Kabakchiev thinks. In 2009, 2,843 small air-planes landed and took off from Sofia Airport and in 2010 their number is 3,043. The growth in business flights shows that the financial situation of companies and private persons is improving and they can maintain private aircraft or can rent an air plane to travel to the Shanghai Expo, for example.