Sat, May 26 2012

Another two flights cancelled because of Bulgaria Air – Alma Tour dispute

Fri, Sep 16 2011 09:13 CET

byThe Sofia Echo staff

1744 Views
Another two flights cancelled because of Bulgaria Air – Alma Tour dispute

Photo: Assen Tonev

Two more flights from Bourgas to St Petersburg, on September 15 and 16, were cancelled because of the debt dispute between Bulgaria Air and tour company Alma Tour, Bulgarian National Television (BNT) said on September 16.
 
BNT quoted the Russian federal tourism agency as saying that the cancellations, of the 11.50pm and 5am flights, had left 358 Russian tourists, including 14 small children, stranded.
 
On September 9, Bulgaria Air announced that it would not honour any tickets or flights booked by Alma Tour, saying that the company had failed to keep up payments on seven million leva (about 3.5 million euro) arrears debt.
 
The September 9 decision by Bulgaria Air left several hundred tourists, mostly Russians but also including Finns and other nationalities, stranded for days at airports in Bulgaria’s Black Sea cities of Bourgas and Varna.
 
Intervention by the Bulgarian Government helped get some home, while others returned with the help of a Russian tour company and in the case of the Finns, with the assistance of Finland’s consumer protection body.
 
Attempts by the Bulgarian Government to pressure Bulgaria Air and Alma Tour to resolve their dispute have not so far produced results.

  • Print
  • Send via email
  • Translate to
  • Share:

To post comments, please, Login or Register.


Please read the The Sofia Echo forum comments policy.

Bankruptcy application filed at Sofia City Court for Alma Tour Fly

UniCredit Bulbank and Central Co-operative Bank are also seeking recovery of a 13 million euro loan.

Alma Tour saga: Sunny Beach executive director asked to resign

Economy Minister Traikov asked Maria Mihaleva to quit because of a conflict of interests, because she was working for Sunny Beach AD and Alma Tour

No-fly zone

Opposition, Russian media slam Bulgaria’s Government over Alma Tour saga.

Alma matter

How a tour company found itself grounded after turbulence over debt.

All Russian tourists who were stranded by the Alma Tour dispute are home - reports

In Parliament, Economy Minister hits out against what he calls aggressive campaign against Bulgaria's tourist industry.

Hundreds of Russian tourists caught up in Alma Tour drama still await departure from Bulgaria

Question mark over return of tourists booked on flights to the end of September

Alma Tour saga: Finnish tourists fly out

Several dozen tourists still remained stranded in Bulgaria on September 13 because of Bulgaria Air's dispute with the tour company

Bulgaria Air refusing to resume Alma Tour flights

Russian tour industry body hits out at Bulgaria's national flag carrier for action against tour group

All tourists stranded in Bulgaria’s Bourgas after debt dispute ‘to be home by September 12’

Talks between Bulgaria Air and Alma Tour due to continue on September 12 but no more flights will be cancelled, national flag carrier says.

Government intervenes to fly home Russians stranded by Bulgaria Air – Alma Tour debt row

Government aircraft to fly Russians home, after an earlier flight paid for a Russian tour operator. Sofia warns that Bulgaria Air and Alma Tour could lose their licences

Bulgaria Air cancels tour company's flights to Russia over unpaid debts

Alma Tours owes it seven million leva in arrears debts, Bulgaria's national carrier says

More in this category

Saab awarded $2.4M military training equipment contract in Bulgaria

The funding is provided under the foreign military sales programme of the US army's Program Executive Office of Simulation, Training and Instrumentation.

Two Brits fined for hooliganism in Bulgaria’s Veliko Turnovo

The UK nationals were arrested after throwing beer bottles at people after being refused entry to a restaurant that had closed for the night.

Tourism: Bulgaria to spend 300M leva on restoring castles, ancient sites

Restoration and development projects include Madara Horseman, Arbanassi fortress, Magura cave.

Sovereign Order of Malta assists hospital in Bulgaria’s Iskrets

Simeon Saxe-Coburg and his spouse Margarita opened a new heating and insulation system at the Tsar Ferdinand Hospital for Pulmonary Diseases in Iskrets, a project implemented thanks to the Embassy of the Sovereign Order of Malta in Sofia and the Nando Peretti Foundation.

Bulgarian Parliament passes confiscation act

According to the law's provisions, the commission will have the power to investigate individuals without prior notification and would not require a criminal conviction in order to launch an investigation.

© 2000-2012, Sofia Echo Media Ltd.

Web Design by RIZN

Sofia Echo Media is part of the Economedia Group.
The news and information content on this website is provided by our editorial team and is copyrighted. Any unauthorised reproduction or use of it is strictly forbidden. Reproduction of this website's content is permitted only with prior written permission from the Editor-in-Chief, should be propertly acredited and provide an active link back to our site. Comments posted by the website's visitors are independent of the editorial materials and do not represent the views of sofiaecho.com. Sofia Echo Media cannot be held responsible for the statements contained in visitor comments. The percentаge change in the shares' prices are based on the price of the last transaction of the current session compared to the price of the last transaction of the previous session. Bulgarian Stock Exchange data is not real-time, but updated every 15 minutes, and should not be used as a basis for decisions about buying or selling stock options.