Plovdiv Airport

Plovdiv Airport Летище Пловдив (Крумово) Letishte Plovdiv (Krumovo)
File:Plovdiv airport logo.png
IATA: PDV ICAO: LBPD Plovdiv Airport Location of airport in Bulgaria
Summary
Operator	Plovdiv Airport EAD
Location	Krumovo, 12 km (7.5 mi) SE of Plovdiv
Elevation AMSL	597 ft / 182 m
Coordinates	42°04′04″N 024°51′03″E
Website	www.plovdivairport.com
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 12/30 8,202 2,500 Concrete

Plovdiv Airport (Template:Lang-bg, 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 mainly 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 a substitute 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. This is the first scheduled flight since 1981.

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. 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.

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.

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.

Airlines and destinations

Scheduled airlines

Airlines	Destinations
S7 Airlines	Moscow-Domodedovo

Charter Airlines

Airlines	Destinations
Air Malta	Malta-Luqa
BH Air	Belfast-International, Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow-International, London-Gatwick, Manchester, Newcastle
BMI	Dublin
Czech airlines	Dublin
Jet2.com	Dublin
Monarch	London-Gatwick
Moskovia	Moscow
Saravia	Moscow-Domodedovo
Thomas Cook Airlines	Knock, London-Gatwick

Cargo Airlines

• Cargoair [1]
• Ruby Star

See also

• List of airports in Bulgaria
• List of airlines of Bulgaria
• List of the busiest airports in Europe by passenger traffic

External links

• Plovdiv Airport Official Website