Plovdiv Airport
| Plovdiv Airport Летище Пловдив (Крумово) Letishte Plovdiv (Krumovo) |
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| IATA: PDV – ICAO: LBPD | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public | ||
| Operator | Plovdiv Airport EAD | ||
| Serves | Plovdiv, South Bulgaria | ||
| Location | Krumovo, 12 km (7.5 mi) SE of Plovdiv | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 597 ft / 182 m | ||
| Coordinates | 42°04′04″N 024°51′53″E / 42.06778°N 24.86472°ECoordinates: 42°04′04″N 024°51′53″E / 42.06778°N 24.86472°E | ||
| Website | |||
| Map | |||
 PDV
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| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 12/30 | 8,202 | 2,500 | Concrete |
| Statistics (2011) | |||
| Passengers | 76 835 | ||
| Passenger change 10-11 |  191.2% |
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| Source: Bulgarian AIP at EUROCONTROL[1] | |||
Plovdiv Airport (Bulgarian: Летище Пловдив, Letishte Plovdiv) (IATA: PDV, ICAO: LBPD) is the airport of the second largest city in Bulgaria, Plovdiv. Often referred to as Plovdiv Krumovo Airport, a small village located 12 km south-east away from the city on the main highway Plovdiv-Asenovgrad.
Due to its good location, near the famous Bulgarian ski resorts Bansko and Pamporovo, the airport is most active during the winter season. The main traffic is charters to and from the United Kingdom, Ireland and Russia. 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.
On 25 December 2009 the first scheduled destination to Moscow started.[2] This is the first scheduled flight since 1981.
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[edit] History
Beginning of the civil aviation related Plovdiv was first test flight Sofia-Plovdiv-Yambol-Burgas early 1928.
Later, in 1947 to carry out interim civilian flights between Sofia and Plovdiv.
In its October 2, 1947, the regional newspaper "Fatherland Voice" reported that 45 days are carried over 1,500 passengers, with notes that the flights were always on time.
In May the next 1948 flight began already in regular line Sofia-Plovdiv-Bourgas-Varna and back. It was opened in Plovdiv airport and building of the former Fifth Air Regiment, and ticket office.
The first flight is performed with aircraft of an airline TABSO, S-2, and then with Li-2. During the Fair Plovdiv airport served an average of 25 aircraft per day.
On May 2, 1962 the airport moved to the area of Graf Ignatievo, one year later in the regional newspaper "Fatherland Voice" published an article entitled: "He has TRACK OF AIRPORT Plovdiv". In the same article reported expansion of charter flights to the Balkan Bulgarian Airlines to Berlin, Moscow, Prague, Vienna by airplane IL-18, TU-104 and TU-114.
On 13 September 1965. opened the new reception building, and next year the enlargement of the parking stands to meet the needs of winter charter program.
During these first years of the new location, Plovdiv airport serves scheduled domestic passenger flights to Bourgas, Varna, Targovishte, Rousse, Sofia and Gorna Oryahovitsa, mainly IL-14 aircraft. Expands and winter charter program. Airport has announced several times a national champion.
In the 70s a very powerful development receive cargo airline Aeroflot Cargo.They operates with IL-18, AN-12 and TU-154, only in 1972 carried more than 5,000 tons. On April 18, 1978 for the first time landing IL-76, which can carry 40 tons of payload.
Domestic scheduled flights were terminated in 1980, with the suspension of flights of aircraft IL-14, but winter charter flights continue to increase.
This leads to new move-Plovdiv airport near the village of Krumovo between Plovdiv and Asenovgrad. Taken up building, technical block, power building, building for Air Traffic Control and Management of tower operations.
On December 18, 1982 landed the first plane TU-134 a charter flight from Amsterdam, which starts a new chronology of Plovdiv Airport.
The new era in the history of Plovdiv Airport continues with the arrival of the November 3, 2010 Boeing 737-800 airplane from London (Stansted Airport), which first opened year-round international passenger flights to and from Plovdiv Airport. [3]
[edit] Reconstruction
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 is made by Glavbolgarstroy and the new terminal building by local firm.
The new terminal building was officially open on 1 July 2009.[4] The new passenger terminal building has 10 check-in desks and 6 gates. It is designed to handle a capacity of 500,000 passengers a year. The cost are estimated to be €20,000,000.
According to the 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 Bulgaria.
[edit] Krumovo Air Base
On the west side of the airport is located 24th Helicopter Air Base of the Bulgarian Air Force, with Eurocopter AS 532, Mil Mi-24, Mil Mi-17 and Bell 206 units.
[edit] Aviation Museum Plovdiv
Next to the airbase is the only functional aviation museum in Bulgaria. Opened in 1991 the museum has 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 with car driving towards the airport and is about 100m from railway station "Mavrudovo", working hours for visitors are 9:00-16:00.
[edit] Airlines and destinations
[edit] Scheduled airlines
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Ryanair | Frankfurt-Hahn, London-Stansted |
| S7 Airlines | Winter seasonal: Moscow-Domodedovo |
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Destinations map
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 Plovdiv
 London Stansted
Frankfurt Hahn
Moscow Domodedovo
Scheduled flights from Plovdiv Airport
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[edit] Charter airlines
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Air Contractors | Dublin |
| Bulgaria Air | Dublin |
| Bulgarian Air Charter | Bourgas, Copenhagen |
| Donavia | Rostov-on-Don |
| Europe Airpost | Dublin |
| Jet2.com | Belfast |
| Kuban Airlines | Moscow-Vnukovo |
| Moskovia Airlines | Moscow-Domodedovo |
| RusLine | Krasnodar, Nizhniy Novgorod |
| Yamal Airlines | Moscow-Domodedovo |
[edit] Cargo airlines
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Cargoair | Charters |
[edit] Passenger statistics
| Year | Passengers | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 52,702 | |
| 1999 | 38,811 |  26% |
| 2000 | 37,680 | 3% |
| 2001 | 27,627 | 27% |
| 2002 | 26,639 | 4% |
| 2003 | 27,379 | 3% |
| 2004 | 37,760 | 38% |
| 2005 | 66,168 | 75% |
| 2006 | 93,245 | 40% |
| 2007 | 104,130 | 12% |
| 2008 | 61,276 | 41% |
| 2009 | 24,919 | 59.3% |
| 2010 | 26,386 | 5.6% |
| 2011 | 76 835 | 191.2% |
[edit] See also
- List of airports in Bulgaria
- List of airlines of Bulgaria
- List of the busiest airports in Europe by passenger traffic
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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