October 6 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's Burgas Airport expects an annual rise of 70% in passenger numbers in 2022, a representative of the airport operator, Fraport Twin Star Airport Management, told SeeNews on Thursday.
The airport has serviced about 1.56 million passengers year to date and expects the number to reach 1.6 million by the end of the year, a corporate communication dept official said in an e-mailed statement.
The expected passenger traffic in 2022 equals 56% of the figure for pre-pandemic year 2019.
The airport in Burgas, on the Black Sea coast, has registered strong growth in the number of tourists from Poland this year. The rise, however, cannot fully offset the missing flights from Russia.
Apart from Poland, the airport registered year-on-year increases in traffic from the UK, the Czech Republic, Germany and Israel. The German traffic, however, was not as strong as expected. In 2023, Burgas Airport will rely on increased advertising in this market by the Bulgarian tourism ministry.
Fraport Twin Star Airport Management is a a 60/40 joint venture of Germany's Fraport and Bulgarian company BM Star. In addition to Burgas Airport, the company runs the Bulgarian coastal airport in Varna.