Bulgaria Joins European Common Aviation Area
2007-09-19 10:00:00
Bulgaria officially joined the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA). The European Union signed an agreement for the creation of a European Common Aviation Area with Bulgaria, seven more countries from South Eastern Europe, Norway and Iceland. The others include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and the United Nations Mission in Kosovo. Bulgaria's Transport Minister Petar Mutafchiev signed in Luxembourg the agreement that would give airlines unrestricted access to the region's skies. He commented that Bulgaria's Parliament is to ratify the agreement within two months. The European Commission says the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA) will create a seamless and efficient European air transport network, linking European people, countries and cultures, and play a vital role in the further integration and development of Europe as a whole. The negotiations on the ECAA Agreement with the South East European partners were launched in March 2005 and took less than a year. Bulgaria's government approved an agreement for establishing the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA) at the end of April. The agreement would give Bulgarian airliners the right to operate in member states without permission from the air traffic administration. The number of air carriers, which operate to and from Bulgaria, is expected to increase, together with the airports' revenues. Forecasts say the price of air carriers' tickets will go down. Forecasts for aircraft movement between the EU and southeast Europe predict an average annual growth rate of more than 6% per annum between 2005 and 2011. As tourism is a growth area in the coastal regions in southeast Europe with potentially 414 airports in the region, there is an opportunity for further expansion.

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