Budget carrier Ryan Air to launch Bulgaria route in '07
2007-09-19 10:00:00
No-frills airline Ryan Air will start offering flights to Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second biggest city, from August 2007, said Plamen Nikolov, executive director of the Plovdiv airport. The low cost carrier will fly from Plovdiv to destinations in Britain, Spain and Germany which have a substantial population of Bulgarian expats. In Germany, Ryan Air will use the Hahn airport near Frankfurt. The destination airports in Britain and Spain have not been specified. In related news, it emerged that the Sofia airport is in talks with both Ryan Air and easyJET. EasyJET refused to provide more information. A slew of budget carriers will enter the Bulgarian aviation market in the second half of 2007 and in 2008, predicted Plamen Stanchev, director of the Sofia International Airport. The local no-frills segment is currently shared by Wizz Air and SkyEurope. Bulgaria's overall aviation market is valued at 400-500 mln euro annually. Italy's MyAir and Germany's German Wings will start operating from the Sofia airport with the start of the summer flight schedule on March 25, said the Sofia airport. Wizz Air and SkyEurope are expected to increase their flights to and from Sofia from the same date by 22 and 15 respectively. German Wings said it will fly three times a week between Sofia and Stuttgart and Berlin. The company also said it is interested in a service to and from Plovdiv. MyAir plans to offer 23 flights weekly from Sofia to Bologna, Torino and Milan. The executive director of the airport in Burgas, on the Black Sea, recently said Norway's Norwegian Air Shuttle, Britain's ThomsonFly, German Wings and Ryan Air were interested in operating from the coastal city.(Dnevnik)

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