Plovdiv Airport

Plovdiv Airport Krumovo Airport Летище Пловдив
IATA: PDV – ICAO: LBPD
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Letishte Plovdiv EAD
Serves	Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Location	Krumovo, Bulgaria
Hub for	Bulgarian Air Charter Cargoair
Elevation AMSL	597 ft / 182 m
Coordinates	42°04′04″N 024°51′53″E / 42.06778°N 24.86472°E / 42.06778; 24.86472Coordinates: 42°04′04″N 024°51′53″E / 42.06778°N 24.86472°E / 42.06778; 24.86472
Website	www.plovdivairport.com
Map
PDV Bulgaria, Plovdiv
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 12/30 8,202 2,500 Concrete
Statistics (2015)
Passengers 103,300
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 and is the country's 4th busiest behind Sofia, Burgas & Varna. It is often referred to as Plovdiv Krumovo Airport, after a small village located 6 km south-east away from the city on the main Plovdiv-Asenovgrad highway.

Plovdiv airport serves the nearby ski resorts of Bansko, Pamporovo and Borovets, and therefore serves mainly charter flights, during the winter season from the end of December until March. The main traffic at present is charter flights to and from the United Kingdom 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.

History

The beginning of civil aviation at Plovdiv came with the first test flight between Sofia-Plovdiv-Yambol and Burgas early in 1928. In 1947 interim civilian flights between Sofia and Plovdiv was carried out.

On 2 October 1947, the regional newspaper Fatherland Voice reported that over a period of 45 days 1,500 passengers were carried, noting that the flights were always on time. In May the next 1948 regular return flight began between Sofia-Plovdiv-Bourgas and Varna. The same period also saw the former Fifth Air Regiment getting established at the airport, and a ticket office was put into use. The first flight was carried out by the airline Balkan Bulgarian Airlines with aircraft types called TABSO, S-2, and with Li-2. During the Fair Plovdiv airport served an average of 25 aircraft per day.

On 2 May 1962 the airport operations moved to the Graf Ignatievo Airbase north of the city. At Plovdiv major restructuring of the airport facilities was carried out. One year later the regional newspaper "Fatherland Voice" published an article with the heading: "He has TRACK OF AIRPORT Plovdiv". In the same article the public was informed of the expansion of charter flights by Balkan Bulgarian Airlines to such destinations as Berlin, Moscow, Prague, and Vienna; the flights were carried out with aircraft types IL-18, TU-104 and TU-114.

On 13 September 1965 a new terminal building was opened, and next year an enlarged tarmac was put into use in time for winter season charter traffic.

During these first years at the new location on the north-west perimeter of the airport, the airport serves scheduled domestic passenger flights to Bourgas, Varna, Targovishte, Rousse, Sofia and Gorna Oryahovitsa, with mainly IL-14 aircraft.

In the 70s the airport underwent considerable improvement and cargo airline Aeroflot Cargo began regular operation with IL-18, AN-12 and TU-154. In 1972 more than 5,000 tons of air cargo went through the airport. On 18 April 1978 an IL-76 landed at the airport, with a gross cargo payload capacity of 40 metric tons.

Domestic scheduled flights were terminated in 1980, but winter charter flights continue to increase which again leads to a relocation of ground facilities as technical buildings, power supply facilities, air traffic control tower and administrative facilities.

On 18 December 1982 the first aircraft TU-134 arrived, a charter flight from Amsterdam, the beginning of a new era for Plovdiv Airport. It is followed by the arrival on 3 November 2010 by a Boeing 737-800 arriving from London Stansted Airport, opening a year-round international passenger service to and from Plovdiv Airport.^[2]

On 25 December 2009 the first service to a scheduled destination, Moscow, started.^[3] This was the first scheduled flight since 1981. The airport handled 103,300 passengers in 2015.

Reconstruction

The old passenger terminal

The new passenger terminal

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 was made by Glavbolgarstroy and the new terminal building by a local firm. The total cost are estimated to be EUR 20 million.

The new passenger terminal building was officially opened on 1 July 2009.^[4] With an area of 6,750 m² (72,700 sq ft), it has 10 check-in desks and 3 gates, and is designed to handle up to 1,000 passengers per hour at peak times.^[5]

According to 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. Despite that, Ryanair has ceased the flights on 2 routs (Milan and Frankfurt) in 2015 after two years of stable operation.

Other facilities

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 a 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 by car on the way to the airport and is about 100m from Mavrudovo railway station. Working hours for visitors are 9:00–16:00.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Statistics

Plovdiv Airport passenger traffic 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%
2012	87,526	13.9%
2013	91,000	4.5%
2014	103,535	13.7%
2015	103,300	0.2%[10]
2016 (01.01-30.09)	60,918	23%[11]

Trivia

• The airport was the setting for the climax of the 2012 American film The Expendables 2.

See also

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

References

External links

Media related to Plovdiv Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website

City of Plovdiv
Geography	Areas Thrace Rivers Maritsa River Hills Markovo tepe Nebet Bunardzhika Sahat Taksim Dzhambaz Dzhendem
Landmarks	Roman Ancient theatre Ancient Stadium Roman Forum Great Basilica Small Basilica Temples Cathedral of St Louis Church of the Holy Mother of God Church of St Constantine and Helena Plovdiv Synagogue Dzhumaya Mosque Museums Plovdiv Regional Historical Museum Plovdiv Regional Ethnographic Museum Other Ivan Vazov National Library International Fair Plovdiv Alyosha Monument
Sports	PFC Botev Plovdiv PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv FC Maritsa Plovdiv FC Spartak Plovdiv Plovdiv Stadium Hristo Botev Stadium Lokomotiv Stadium Todor Diev Stadium
Education	Plovdiv University
Events	The Golden Chest A Scene on Crossroad
Transportation	Plovdiv Airport Plovdiv Central railway station Plovdiv trolleybus system
People	List of people from Plovdiv
History	Timeline