Foreign investors and tourists wishing to land at Sofia Airport (SA) may face delays and cancellations caused by fog for up to another six months. SA executive director Plamen Stanchev said that foreign air carriers flying into Bulgaria may have to land at Thessaloniki or Bucharest for another half a year, or even fly back to their departure airport, if Bulgaria’s main airport was closed due to fog.

According to Stanchev, aircrafts are not able to land at Sofia airport if the visibility is zero because the airport does not have the right categorisation, under international aviation regulations, to permit landing under those conditions.

In order for the current categorisation to be increased the new equipment at SA has to be tested and checked by the Civil Aviation Administration (CAA). Director of airport service Vladimir Shturbanov said the airport had already installed a navigation system, which worked and had been checked and tested, but it needed to be in operation for six months before the airport’s category could be increased. According to CAA chief Georgi Stoyanov, there are strict safety and emergency-landing rules in  aviation and the airplane’s captain takes the decision for landing in fog, Bulgarian-language Dnevnik daily reported on November 26.

On November 23, SA was closed from 8pm to 4am the next morning. During that time about 10 aircraft were supposed to land, most of which were foreign carriers. The Austrian Airlines flight landed in Thessaloniki, refuelled and then returned to Vienna. Regional manager Kamen Kitchev said under these circumstances the company  does not use Plovdiv airport as it does not have the correct facilities, it does not have de-icing machines or the necessary border control. Austrian Airlines also does not have the staff needed in Plovdiv to service its flights.

Lufthansa’s two flights returned to Munich and Frankfurt. This was the usual practice for the carrier. SA data showed that the Alitalia aircraft landed in Bucharest before returning to Milan.

British Airways, however, used the reserve airports in Varna and in Bucharest as is the company’s normal practice under foggy conditions. Low-cost air carrier Wizz Air, Czech Airlines and Bulgaria Air also use Plovdiv airport.

Bulgaria Air executive director Kristian Krustev said that they had a contract with a bus company to transport diverted passengers to Sofia.

On November 26 representatives of the European Safety Agency arrived in Sofia to carry out the next set of checks. The specialists checked the use of Bulgarian aircraft and airports. The aim was to observe the local CAA’s work on resolving the issues raised in the previous European Commission’s monitoring report.