Wizz Air to resume Sofia-Varna flights in 2017
Low-cost airline Wizz Air said on September 16 that it would resume flights between capital city Sofia and the Black Sea port of Varna starting in March 2017.
The company’s chief commercial officer George Michalopoulos told reporters that Wizz Air would operate one flight every day between the two cities, in the evening. The distance between Sofia and Varna, sometimes referred to as Bulgaria’s “sea capital” is about 440km and it takes more than five hours by car to make the trip.
Asked about why Wizz Air decided to resume the flights, which were suspended in the wake of the global economic crisis several years ago, Michalopoulos said that the market expansion justified the decision.
He said that Wizz Air saw a 30 per cent increase in the number of passengers on flights to and from Sofia in 2015, to 1.4 million. In the first eight months of 2016, the airline match the same growth rate of 30 per cent, with passenger numbers up from 886 000 in January-August 2015 to 1.15 million in the same period of this year.
Asked if the company was looking into the prospect of flights to other short-distance destinations on the Balkan peninsula, Michalopoulos said that Wizz Air was always considering new routes, but gave no further details. One new destination announced by Michalopoulos was Catania in Italy, with two flights a week starting next year, making it the sixth Italian destination for Wizz Air flights from Sofia.
(Photo: Mark Harkin/flickr.com)
