Bulgaria's Sofia Airport Passenger Traffic Seen Rising to 3.2 Mln in 2008

The airport has already welcomed its three millionth passenger for the year, reaching the milestone on December 7, a communications official told SeeNews.

Passenger traffic at the airport rose by 19% year-on-year in the first eleven months of 2008, the airport said in a statement posted on its website.

Aircraft traffic was up by 14% through November, the airport said.

August set the record for most passengers this year with 333,230, up by 22% compared to the same month of 2007.

International charter flights at the airport grew by 60% year-on-year during the 2008 summer tourist season while passenger traffic was up by 75%.

The airport served 2.49 million people through September. The number of passengers on scheduled international flights handled by the Sofia airport increased by 24% to 2.492 million in 2007, according to the Bulgarian Airlines Association.

Earlier this year, Sofia Airport said it expects a slight rise in net profit to no less than 22 million levs ($14.48 million/11.24 million euro) in 2008 on the back of increased traffic.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)