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Founded | November 2002 | ||||||
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Commenced operations | 4 December 2002 | ||||||
Hubs | Sofia Airport | ||||||
Focus cities | |||||||
Frequent-flyer program | FLY MORE | ||||||
Subsidiaries | Bul Air | ||||||
Fleet size | 10 | ||||||
Destinations | 26 | ||||||
Parent company | Balkan Hemus Group EAD | ||||||
Headquarters | Sofia, Bulgaria | ||||||
Key people | |||||||
Revenue | €176.5 million (2015) | ||||||
Net income | -€4.4 million (2015) | ||||||
Website | air.bg |
Bulgaria Air (Bulgarian: България Ер), is the flag carrier airline of Bulgaria, with its headquarters at Sofia Airport in Sofia. The company is owned by Chimimport Inc. and is a leader in terms of local market share. The airline operates short and medium haul aircraft to destinations in Europe, Middle East, and Russia, focus cities are Burgas and Varna.
The airline was established in 2002 as a successor to the insolvent Balkan Bulgarian Airlines and commenced operations on 4 December that year. By order of the Minister of Transport and Communications it was declared the national flag carrier in November 2002. Bulgaria Air began operations using the name "Balkan Air Tour." The airline was known by that name for just a short period of time. The name "Bulgaria Air" and initial logo were determined by a public competition. Bulgaria Air was privatised in 2006; although it was rumoured that the government wanted to sell the carrier to a major foreign investor, a group of locally owned companies, led by Hemus Air, emerged as the buyer with Italian airline Air One being the only other contender. Hemus Air reportedly paid €6.6m and promised to invest a further €86m over the next five years. Since then all flights and operations of Hemus Air and its subsidiary Viaggio Air are under name and management of the merged company, Bulgaria Air.
On 20 November 2008, Bulgaria Air became a full member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). In mid-2011 Bulgaria Air announced that after a thorough analysis of its destinations it had chosen to purchase seven new Embraer E-190 aircraft. The delivery of the first aircraft was in early 2012, whilst the remaining aircraft were delivered later in 2013. The company planned to lease Airbus A321s from 2016.