site.btaScientists, Authorities Discuss Again Naming Sofia Airport after National Hero Vasil Levski

Meeting with Transport Ministry and Sofia Airport officials here Monday, professors of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences again urged naming Sofia Airport after Bulgarian revolutionary and national hero Vasil Levski, the Ministry said Monday. The idea was presented by Prof. Atanas Semov and Prof. Stefan Hadjitodorov from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

The meeting tool place at the invitation of caretaker Minister Krassimira Stoyanova.

"It is important that the entrance gate of the country be named after the most significant and the greatest European of Bulgaria - Vasil Levski," Prof. Atanas Semov said at the beginning of the meeting.

Stoyanova said that she welcomes the idea and together with the administration and Sofia Airport concessionaire preparations for the proposal will be started.

Renaming the airport, which is a site of international importance, calls for a presidential decree following a favourable opinion from the Transport Ministry with a financial framework and specific steps and deadlines to be taken.

The meeting was also attended by Jesus Caballero, CEO of Sofia Airport operator SOF Connect. 

The idea of renaming the airport was first proposed in 2009, and in 2017 the proposal for the name Levski was made by BAS scientists and received support, but did not materialize. Opinion polls have showen widespread approval for the initiative to name the national airport after one of Bulgaria's most important historical figures.