Transport Minister temporarily yanks licence of ground operator at Bulgaria’s Sofia Airport after foul-up blocks passengers

The licence of Swissport Bulgaria, the ground operator at Vassil Levski Sofia Airport, which is responsible for passenger service, will be temporarily revoked and the secretary general of the Civil Aviation Administration will be fired, Bulgaria’s Transport Minister Grozdan Karazhov told reporters on June 22.

This is a sequel to an incident on June 20 that saw 300 passengers from a flight from London blocked in a jet corridor – known as the “sleeve”, connecting the aircraft to an airport terminal, for more than an hour.

Karadzhov responded on June 21 by calling an emergency meeting on Sunday morning at the airport involving management of the Civil Aviation Administration, the executive director of airport concession holder SOF Connect and his team, representatives of the Customs Agency, Border Police, as well as all ground operators responsible for servicing arriving flights from third, meaning non-EU, countries.

By June 23, the executive director of the Civil Aviation Administration, Anelia Marinova, must submit a report to Karadzhov with new measures to improve the service of passengers arriving from countries outside Schengen.

Marinova must also present an analysis of which procedures were violated to lead to the foul-up on June 20. The Civil Aviation Administration employees responsible for this will also be sanctioned.

In February, SOF Connect submitted a request to impose minimum quality requirements on ground operators – politeness, cleanliness, serviceability of buses, etc. However, the Civil Aviation Administration has not reacted.

“Last Monday, I asked the secretary general, who was standing in for the director, to prepare these minimum quality requirements, as well as changes to the regulation for a tenfold increase in fines for ground operators for violations. To this day, I have not received anything. If I do not have them again by Monday, there will be more resignations and dismissals,” Karadzhov said.

“It is obvious that there are weaknesses in the activities of the Civil Aviation Authority. The ground operators operate only under a licence issued by the Civil Aviation Authority, and they do not have a contract with the airport operator SOF Connect.

“We have already had problems with them twice – we made prescriptions that they did not fulfill, we fined them… I am unhappy that for the third time I have to deal with the ground operators. This is already too much,” he said.

This was why he wanted the licence of Swissport Bulgaria to be temporarily revoked, giving a reasonable period of time for other operators to take over its work.

A tender will be announced for a new ground operator.

“This is how we will proceed with anyone who does not do their job. This particular case is the result of the inadequate behaviour of an employee of the ground operator. This is the first time in Bulgarian history that such a punishment has been imposed, but we will not make compromises,” Karadzhov said.

He ordered that a long-term solution be sought to the problem of arrivals from countries outside Schengen.

Starting Monday, passengers from such flights will be transported to passport control by bus, without using the corridor. On departure, they will use the corridor.

“This is not the ideal solution, but it is certainly faster and more comfortable than what is currently the case – getting off at the sleeve, then up the stairs to the bus, then to passport control,” Karadzhov said.

He has asked SOF Connect to seek a longer-term architectural solution to the problem until Terminal 3 at the airport is ready.

“So far, I see inadequate service from ground infrastructure employees. Something is broken – I will demand all the documentation. There is also an obviously non-working landing system. This will be examined on site and we will find a solution, “he said.

Earlier, SOF Connect said in a post on Facebook that the responsibility for the June 20 incident lay entirely with the ground handling operators, Goldair Handling and Swissport Bulgaria, which serve passengers at Sofia Airport – from check-in, through luggage size checks before transfer to the aircraft, transport by bus or transfer via the jet corridor, and luggage delivery times.”

SOF Connect said that the two ground operators were selected by the ministry and had service contracts with the airlines, not with SOF Connect.

Their activities are controlled by the Civil Aviation Authority, which is the only body that can influence the improvement of the quality of passenger service, SOF Connect said.

In a statement on the website of Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry on June 21, the Border Police said that in response to a call to emergency number 112 on Friday, officers from the Sofia Airport Border Checkpoint duty shift were immediately dispatched and determined that there were indeed passengers in the so-called sleeve between the plane and the terminal who were unable to exit.

Since the problem is beyond the competence of the border police and is being handled by the airport’s ground operator, their officers were immediately called to open the electronic doors on the way to the terminal exits, the statement said.

The Border Police Directorate has no authority in transporting passengers, nor in servicing the terminal building, planes, and service buses, it said.

In the case in question, the passengers were unable to reach the border control area, but the border police officers assisted the ground operator responsible for servicing Terminal 2, the statement said.

(Photo: Sofia Airport)