Sofia Airport Back in the Grips of Fog

Politics | December 16, 2006, Saturday // 00:00

After a sunny spell of several days in the beginning of this week, the fog settled back over Sofia Airport canceling scores of flights.

Lufthansa has annulled its regular flights linking Sofia with Munich and Frankfurt.

Flag carrier Bulgaria Air has re-deployed her hub to Plovdiv, the country's second largest city, in an attempt to spare its passengers the inconvenience of staying grounded for several days.

Earlier this week Bulgarian Transport Ministry spit out words of apology to those thousands of passengers stuck to fog-blocked Sofia Airport. However, it would not help any airliner or passenger reach the destination.

Minister Petar Mutafchiev did admit his ministry oversaw to inform appropriately about the changed certification of the airport's runways.

Yet, the explanation focused on the efforts of the ministry to save forfeit payments to the Kuwaiti contractors if the old Sofia Airport runway would have stayed in work, while it had to be renovated.

"The Arab consortium Macadamak might have asked us a forfeit of EUR 1 M a month, should we have delayed the launch of the new runaway," Mutafchiev said.

The new 3,600-m-long runway at Sofia airport was inaugurated at the end of August.

The project for reconstruction and renovation of the Sofia Airport is one of the biggest ISPA projects in Bulgaria. With a decree of the Council of Ministers, the Airport is given the status of a strategic location.

With the new terminal anticipated to open by Christmas time, Sofia Airport is planned to have a capacity of 2.6 million passengers and 26,000 tons of cargo exchange per year.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!

Politics » Be a reporter: Write and send your article

Advertisement
Advertisement
Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news provider in English that informs its readers about the latest Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily online newspaper "Sofia Morning News." Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) and Sofia Morning News publish the latest economic, political and cultural news that take place in Bulgaria. Foreign media analysis on Bulgaria and World News in Brief are also part of the web site and the online newspaper. News Bulgaria