November 11 (SeeNews) - Passenger traffic at Bulgarian airports of Varna and Burgas rose by an annual 85.6% to 1.85 million in the ten months through October, Germany's Fraport Group, which operates the two coastal airports, said on Thursday.
Passenger traffic at Varna Airport increased by an annual 58.2% to 909,448 in the January-October period, while passengers at Burgas Airport more than doubled to 936,782, Fraport Group said in a statement.
Cargo handled at the two airports more than doubled to 4,439 t in the period under review. Aircraft take-offs and landings went up 59.8% year-on-year to 16,152.
Burgas and Varna airports are run by Fraport Twin Star Airport Management under a 35-year concession contract awarded in 2006. Fraport Twin Star Airport Management is a 60/40 joint venture of Fraport and Bulgarian company BM Star.
According to the statement, Fraport's airports worldwide continued their positive passenger trend in October 2021 with most of them achieving significant passenger growth. "Traffic volumes at some airports even rose by over 100 percent year-on-year, albeit compared to strongly reduced traffic levels in October 2020. Compared to pre-pandemic October 2019, the majority of the airports in Fraport’s international portfolio still registered lower passenger figures," the group said.
Elsewhere in Southeast Europe, Fraport Group operates the airport in Slovenia's capital Ljubljana, as well as 14 airports in Greece. The group also runs an airport in Antalya, Turkey.