Bulgaria Air

Bulgaria Active
2002Founded in
13Current fleet
20On Vuelopedia
5Types

Bulgaria Air (Bulgarian: ???????? ???) is the flag carrier airline of Bulgaria, with its headquarters at Vasil Levski Sofia Airport in Sofia. The company is owned by Chimimport AD and is a leader in terms of local market share. The airline operates short and medium-haul aircraft to destinations in Europe and the Middle East. Focus cities in Bulgaria are Burgas and Varna. In 2018, the company carried a total of 1.267 million passengers on 5,995 flights.

Key facts

Founded2002
CountryBulgaria
HeadquartersSofía
GroupBalkan Hemus Group AG
IATA / ICAOFB / LZB
CallsignFLYING BULGARIA
Documented fleet13

History

The airline was established in 2002 as a successor to the insolvent Balkan Bulgarian Airlines and commenced operations on 4 December that year. By order of the Minister of Transport and Communications, it was declared the national flag carrier in November 2002. Bulgaria Air began operations using the name Balkan Air Tour. The airline was known by that name for just a short period of time. The name Bulgaria Air and the initial logo were determined in a public competition. Bulgaria Air was privatised in 2006. Although it was rumoured that the government wanted to sell the carrier to a major foreign investor, a group of locally owned companies (led by Hemus Air) emerged as the buyer, with Italian airline Air One being the only other contender. Hemus Air reportedly paid €6.6 million and promised to invest a further €86 million over the next five years. Since then, all flights and operations of Hemus Air and its subsidiary Viaggio Air are under the name and management of the merged company, Bulgaria Air.

In November 2008, Bulgaria Air became a full member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). In mid 2011, Bulgaria Air announced that they had completed a thorough analysis of its routes and had decided to acquire the new Embraer E190 aircraft. The delivery of the first new Embraer E190 aircraft occurred in March 2012. In February 2020, the airline's CEO Yanko Georgiev stated that the carrier was in talks with two aircraft manufacturers to place an order for a single-aisle jet. They plan to order 5-6 of these aircraft to modernise their fleet and to extend their network with more aircraft available.

Its airports

Its main hubs

Airports that list it on their own website

These airports include this airline in the carrier list on their official website.

Other airports in its network

Route network according to OpenFlights (open route database). It may not reflect recent schedule changes.

Data from Wikidata (CC0) · summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

Cite

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This page was last updated on September 26, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, September 26). Bulgaria Air. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/bulgaria-air

MLA

“Bulgaria Air.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 26 Sept. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airline/bulgaria-air. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Bulgaria Air.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified September 26, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/bulgaria-air.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Bulgaria Air. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/bulgaria-air (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_airline_bulgaria_air,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Bulgaria Air}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-09-26},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/bulgaria-air},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/bulgaria-air}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-16},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/bulgaria-air |title=Bulgaria Air |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-09-26 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}

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