Bulgarian Civil Aviation Suffers Huge Losses Owing to Coronavirus Pandemic

The pandemic has an extremely negative impact on civil aviation. Passenger flows have plummetd not only to and from Bulgaria, this is a global problem, especially strongly felt on a European scale. Such a catastrophic situation has probably not happened since World War II.

This said in an interview with BGNES Yovko Yotsev, who is general secretary of the Association of Bulgarian Airlines (ABA).

The most difficult for the airlines in our country are the current months. "This is because it has already been nearly 10 months since the pandemic began and the resources of the airlines are completely exhausted as long as they are unable to receive fresh revenues," Yotsev said.

Preliminary data of the Association of Bulgarian Airlines on passengers transported to and from Bulgaria show a sharp decrease: for Sofia Airport about 60%, for Varna airport - about 70%, for Burgas airport - about 85%.

"Unfortunately, this is a really drastic decline," the ABA general secretary summed up, adding that it also meant fewer planes taking off and fewer flight hours for the pilots themselves.

"In an effort to reduce their costs airlines cut down the number of aircraft they offer on the market, but the actual load on aircraft is lower than in previous years. Because the load factors of the aircraft themselves are significantly lower, the number of aircraft taking off and landing has also decreased, but on a smaller scale vs the reduction in passengers trnasported.

For example, as for Bulgaria,it can be said that that the number of flights has plummeted by about 50%, which means that the number of hours in the air has decreased by approximately as much," he said.

Thus, Yovko Yotsev pointed out that on average the pilots in Bulgaria have...