site.btaBulgarian Hotel and Restaurant Association Supports Fund for Year-round Flights for Burgas Airport

The Bulgarian Hotel and Restaurant Association (BHRA) supports the idea of mayors of municipalities along the southern Black Sea coast to create a regional airline called Burgas Air, the association said here on Thursday. On Tuesday it was reported that all municipalities in the Burgas region will unite in a non-profit association, which aims to finance a new fund to stimulate year-round flights from and to Burgas Airport. 

The BHRA is adamant that the lack of sufficient flights to Burgas Airport has prevented Bulgaria from fulfilling its tourist potential and expanding the tourist season period, said Georgi Shterev, Chair of BHRA. According to the Association, it is difficult to find an airline that will maintain a short flight program just for the summer months, as airlines do not have enough interest in this. The association recalls that for years it has been insisting on the creation of a state-owned charter company to serve the northern and southern Black Sea coasts as a priority and help expand the summer tourist season. "Such an investment by the State would also make the efforts to advertise this country as a tourist destination more effective", Shterev noted. 

Veselin Nalbantov, Deputy Chair of BHRA and Hotel Owner in the Sunny Beach Resort, stressed that this country is losing millions due to the lack of interest from the concessionaire of Burgas Airport and the redirection of traffic to Varna Airport. "We are grateful to the mayors of municipalities on the southern Black Sea coast and to the initiator of the idea to create a regional airline company Burgas Air", he added.

At the end of February the concessionaire of Burgas and Varna Airport, Fraport Twin Star Airport Management AD, said in an official statement that there has never been any attempt to transfer traffic from Burgas to Varna. Fraport will also participate in the fund of the municipalities with a contribution of BGN 200,000 per year.