FLIGHTS

Until recently the availability of affordable flights to Bulgaria was one of the main deterrents to purchasing Bulgarian property. Over the last couple of years a number of budget airlines have entered the market primarily flying from London or nearby airports e.g. Luton, although the main players such as Easyjet or Ryanair have not yet entered the market.

With Bulgaria's accession to the EU on 1st January 2007, some of the budget airlines are starting to show interest at the opening up of the airways. Sofia recently signed the open skies agreement granting all European carriers access to the local market.

It has been noted elsewhere on the net that both Easyjet and Ryanair have submitted flight schedules to Bulgaria in readiness for Bulgaria's EU accession. Once these start flying on a regular basis, it will signal a significant shift of confidence towards Bulgaria as a major tourist destination. Many property agents are citing this as a catalyst for further growth in the property market.

See update for 5/12/07 below for new Easyjet information.

Recently, XL Airways announced that they will be launching flights to Bourgas airport on the Black Sea Coast in May. These will fly every Monday from Knock airport, County Mayo, Ireland from 7th May to 1st October 2007.

Ryanair is planning to commence flights to Plovdiv which should boost tourism and property values in the mountain resorts such as Pamporovo which is only 85km from Plovdiv airport. The service is expected to be Plovdiv to the UK, Spain and Germany. Ryanair has also proposed a service between Sofia and Frankfurt.

Wizz Air recently announced that starting in June 2007, it will start flying from Bourgas on the Black Sea Coast to Budapest, Katowice and Warsaw and also from Varna to Budapest. Currently Wizz Air only flies from London to Bourgas. This airline expects to fly approximately 150,000 passengers to and from Bulgaria in 2007.

See update for 5/12/07 below for new Wizz Air information.

Budget airline Sky Europe recently announced that it was commencing a Monday to Saturday Sofia to Vienna service from 26th March 2007.

Bulgaria's Balkan Airlines flies to most European capitals, Asia and North America but has come under criticism for unreliability.

Travellers from Australia may have to connect to more popular European destinations before travelling on to Bulgaria.

At the present time, in some instances, and until more budget airlines enter the market, it may be cheaper to search out the cheapest package deal to take advantage of the flight, and throw away the accommodation voucher setting your own itinerary from there.

The airlines we have used so far have been Czech Airlines and Lufthansa flying from Manchester. We found these using the cheap flight search services available on the net.

We will endeavour to keep this page up to date as new services become available, particularly from the budget airlines.

Update - 21/5/07

We have recently booked return flights for mid June from Manchester to Bourgas with Thomsonfly for £162. We orginally found this flight with Flightline for £182, but the same flight was cheaper with Thomsonfly. So it is worth checking the actual tour operator website once you find a flight though a flight discount website.

Update - 5/12/07

The German airline German Wings is planning to fly from Bourgas to Dusseldorf and Cologne. Germanwings recently announced the launch of bargain flights from Sofia to three European capitals with transfers at the airport of Cologne/Bonn, Germany. The "Smart Connect service" will be introduced during the new winter season and is expected to save up to 30% on the ticket price, The average one-way ticket price from Sofia to Paris, Berlin, London and Dresden via Cologne will total EUR 60, including all charges. The company started servicing flights from the capital Sofia and coastal airports Varna and Bourgas to Cologne and Berlin in March 2007.

Wizz Air announced the launch of new flights from the capital Sofia to the coastal town of Varna, becoming the first low-cost airline to operate domestic flights in Bulgaria.The first flight will take off on 12 July 2008 and will be initially operated four times aweek. Regular one-way fares start from EUR 9.99, including all charges. Wizz Air's fare is around ten times cheaper than competing offers from Hemus Air, the only other carrier currently flying between the capital and coastal airports Varna and Burgas. The price is even lower than bus and train fares available to these destinations from Sofia.

Easyjet are now offering flights to Sofia from London Gatwick from £50.98.

Page last updated: 6th December 2007