Plovdiv Airport

It may be referred to as Plovdiv Krumovo Airport, after a small village located 6 km south-east away from the city on the main Plovdiv-Asenovgrad second class road.

Plovdiv Airport Летище Пловдив
IATA: PDV ICAO: LBPD
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Plovdiv Airport JSC
Serves	Plovdiv
Location	Krumovo, Bulgaria
Opened	1928 (1928)
Elevation AMSL	182 m / 597 ft
Coordinates	42°04′04″N 024°51′53″E / 42.06778°N 24.86472°E / 42.06778; 24.86472
Website	www.plovdivairport.com
Map
PDV Location of airport in Bulgaria
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 12/30 2,500 8,202 Concrete
Statistics (2022)
Passengers 221,721 Passenger change 21-22 480.9% Aircraft movements 4,757 Movements change 21-22 47.9% Cargo (t) 16.3 Cargo change 21-22 99.9%
Source: Bulgarian AIP at EUROCONTROL

Plovdiv Airport serves the nearby ski resorts of Bansko, Pamporovo and Borovets, and therefore serves mainly charter flights, during the winter season from the end of December until March. The main traffic at present is charter flights to and from the United Kingdom and Germany. The airport also plays a vital role in case of emergencies and is sometimes used as an alternate for Sofia Airport, which is almost 150 km away or 1.5-hour drive on the Trakiya motorway.

The beginning of civil aviation at Plovdiv came with the first test flight between Sofia-Plovdiv-Yambol and Burgas early in 1928. In 1947, interim^{[clarification needed]} civilian flights between Sofia and Plovdiv were carried out.

On 2 October 1947, the regional newspaper Fatherland Voice reported that over a period of 45 days 1,500 passengers were carried, noting that the flights were always on time. In May 1948, regular service began between Sofia-Plovdiv-Bourgas and Varna. The same period also saw the former Fifth Air Regiment getting established at the airport, and a ticket office was put into use. The first flight was carried out by the airline Balkan Bulgarian Airlines. During the Fair Plovdiv, the airport served an average of 25 flights per day.^{[citation needed]}

On 2 May 1962, airport operations moved to the Graf Ignatievo Airbase north of the city. At Plovdiv major restructuring of the airport facilities was carried out. One year later the regional newspaper "Fatherland Voice" published an article with the heading: "He has TRACK OF AIRPORT Plovdiv". In the same article the public was informed of the expansion of charter flights by Balkan Bulgarian Airlines to such destinations as Berlin, Moscow, Prague, and Vienna; the flights were carried out with aircraft types IL-18, TU-104 and TU-114.

On 13 September 1965, a new terminal building was opened, and next year, an enlarged tarmac was put into use in time for winter season charter traffic.

During these first years at the new location on the north-west perimeter of the airport, the airport serves scheduled domestic passenger flights to Bourgas, Varna, Targovishte, Rousse, Sofia and Gorna Oryahovitsa, with mainly IL-14 aircraft.

In the 1970s, the airport underwent considerable improvement and cargo airline Aeroflot Cargo began regular operation with IL-18, AN-12 and TU-154. In 1972 more than 5,000 tons of air cargo went through the airport. On 18 April 1978, an IL-76 landed at the airport, with a gross cargo payload capacity of 40 metric tons.

Domestic scheduled flights were terminated in 1980, but winter charter flights continue to increase which again leads to a relocation of ground facilities as technical buildings, power supply facilities, air traffic control tower and administrative facilities.

On 18 December 1982, the first aircraft TU-134 arrived, a charter flight from Amsterdam, the beginning of a new era for Plovdiv Airport. It is followed by the arrival on 3 November 2010 by a Boeing 737-800 arriving from London Stansted Airport, opening a year-round international passenger service to and from Plovdiv Airport.

On 25 December 2009, the first service to a scheduled destination, Moscow, started. This was the first scheduled flight since 1981. The airport handled 103,300 passengers in 2015.

 

 

Although the airport is operated by the state-owned Letishte Plovdiv EAD and the runway and the apron are also state-owned, the terminal is partly private. That made the renovation of the terminal very difficult. Today the terminal is 58.08% owned by Alfa Finance Holding (former owner of these shares was the Swiss firm TADO) and the rest of the shares belong to the state-owned "Mezhdunarodno letishte Plovdiv" EAD. The problems in agreement with the private owners of the terminal brought the decision from the state to build new terminal and to extend the apron. The renovation process started at the beginning of 2009; the apron extension for 6 additional aircraft stands was made by Glavbolgarstroy and the new terminal building by a local firm. The total cost are estimated to be EUR 20 million.

The new passenger terminal building was officially opened on 1 July 2009. With an area of 6,750 m² (72,700 sq ft), it has 10 check-in desks and 3 gates, and is designed to handle up to 1,000 passengers per hour at peak times.^{[unreliable source?]}

According to British consultants from Airport Strategy & Marketing, which were hired to investigate possibilities for developing new routes, there is big interest from low-cost carriers like Ryanair and Wizz Air. Despite that, Ryanair has ceased the flights on 2 routes (Milan and Frankfurt) in 2015 after two years of stable operation.

The government have started the first concession procedure back in 2011, but there were no candidates for it. The second attempt for the concession was made in the spring of 2016 when the government have opened a tender for a 35 years concession of the airport, but the tender was shortly cancelled for non-compliance with European rules. In December 2016 the government opened the 3-rd tender for the concession. In the new procedure 3 companies have made the bid for the airport - Silk Road Plovdiv Airport, Consortium Plovdiv Airport and a tie-up between Hainan and Plovdiv Airport Invest. On 28 March 2018, Bulgarian Government awarded the consortium of HNA Group and Plovdiv Airport Invest a 35-year-long concession on Plovdiv airport in return for investments reaching €79 million, including a new cargo and passenger terminal. On 19 of July the consortium of HNA Group and Plovdiv Airport Invest have declared that it won't sign the concession contract which opens the road for the classified on the second place to take the concession.

Krumovo Air Base

The 24th Helicopter Air Base of the Bulgarian Air Force, with Eurocopter AS 532, Mil Mi-24, Mil Mi-17 and Bell 206 units is located on the west side of the airport.

Aviation Museum Plovdiv

Next to the airbase is the only functional aviation museum in Bulgaria. Opened in 1991, the museum has a rich collection of modern, cold war airplanes and such from the Third Bulgarian Kingdom. Due to the low state budget, the collection is preserved mostly by donations. The museum is accessible by car on the way to the airport and is about 100m from Mavrudovo railway station. Working hours for visitors are 9:00–16:00.

The following airlines operate regular scheduled, charter, and seasonal charter flights at Plovdiv Airport:

Traffic

Traffic at Plovdiv Airport

Year	Passengers	Change	Cargo (tonnes)	Change	Aircraft movements	Change
1998	52,702		1,084		1,463
1999	38,811	32.7%	402	62.9%	612	58.2%
2000	37,680	2.9%	682	49.8%	1,518	148.0%
2001	27,627	26.6%	1,135	66.4%	1,140	24.9%
2002	26,639	3.6%	818	27.9%	975	14.5%
2003	27,379	2.8%	1,256	99.8%	924	5.2%
2004	37,760	37.9%	2,138	70.2%	1,277	38.2%
2005	66,168	75.2%	2,276	6.4%	1,598	25.1%
2006	93,245	40.9%	2,126	6.6%	2,011	25.8%
2007	104,130	11.7%	1,867	12.1%	1,990	1.0%
2008	61,276	41.1%	666	64.3%	1,702	14.5%
2009	24,919	3.0%	472	29.1%	6,138	260.6%
2010	26,547	6.5%	369	21.8%	4,983	18.8%
2011	76,835	5.4%	380	2.9%	5,805	0.2%
2012	88,704	189.4%	255	33.0%	4,193	27.8%
2013	92,097	3.8%	182	28.6%	3,657	12.8%
2014	103,292	12.1%	554	204.4%	2,643	27.7%
2015	103,300	0.1%	821	48.2%	3,243	22.7%
2016	77,097	25.4%	2,755	235.6%	2,474	23.7%
2017	90,136	16.9%	628	77.2%	2,444	1.2%
2018	133,397	48.0%	521	17.0%	3,923	60.5%
2019	77,309	42.0%	573	10.0%	3,786	3.5%
2020	42,120	45.5%	459	19.9%	3,621	4.3%
2021	38,166	9.4%	112	75.6%	3,448	4.8%
2022	221,721	480.9%	16	85.7%	4,757	47.9%
2023	183,988	17.0%	26	62.5%	3,408	28.4%
Source: Directorate General "Civil Aviation Administration"

• The airport was the setting for the climax of the 2012 American film The Expendables 2

• List of airports in Bulgaria
• List of airlines of Bulgaria
• List of the busiest airports in Europe by passenger traffic