site.btaCivil Aviation Administration Receives 690 Complaints from Passengers So Far This Year

Bulgaria's Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) will tighten control over airlines and will keep track of whether they respond to passenger complaints. Fines of up to BGN 5,000 may be imposed under the Civil Aviation Act. This transpired during a meeting of Deputy Tourism Minister Irena Georgieva and Deputy Transport and Communications Minister Anna Natova with CAA Director General Anelia Marinova and representatives of an association of tour operators and travel agents called Future for Tourism (FTA).

The meeting came days after FTA alerted the competent authorities about flights cancelled due to wildfires in Greece and Italy, the Tourism Ministry reported on Thursday.

Between January 1 and August 1, CAA received complaints from over 690 air passengers. Marinova said: "We need to exercise much tighter control, because the large number of complaints shows that, far from being incidental, the violation of rules has become a tendency."

According to Georgieva, the government should stand firmly for the rights of tourists in order to curb malpractices. She noted that flying remains a preferred mode of long-distance travel for Bulgarian tourists.

Natova said the Transport and Communications Ministry is in contact with the Bulgarian Embassy in Hungary over cancellations of Wizz Air flights to the south of Italy. A meeting with the carrier's management will be held in the coming days.