site.btaUPDATED Transport Minister Convenes Emergency Meeting after Vasil Levski Airport Incident

Transport Minister Grozdan Karadjov convened emergency meeting after a "drastic incident" took place at Sofia's Vasil Levski Airport on Saturday, the Ministry reported. Some 300 passengers of a flight from London were stranded for nearly an hour in the jet bridge connecting the plane to the airport terminal.

The meeting will take place on June 22 at 10 a.m. at the Airport's Terminal 2. It will be attended by the management of the Civil Aviation Administration Directorate General, the CEO of SOF Connect and his team, representatives of the Customs Agency, the Border Police, as well as all ground operators responsible for handling incoming flights from third countries.

Each of the units should present to Minister Karadjov an option for better organization of entry into Bulgaria of passengers arriving from outside the European Union (EU), the Ministry said.

The operator of Sofia's Vasil Levski Airport, SOF Connect, wrote on its official Facebook page, “In connection with Friday's incident and the frequent cases of poor passenger service, we declare that the responsibility lies entirely with the ground handling operators, Goldair Handling AD and Swissport Bulgaria AD, which serve passengers at Sofia Airport – from check-in, through baggage size checks before transfer to the aircraft, transport by bus or transfer via the jet bridge, and baggage delivery times.”

The airport operator points out that in February they sent a document to the Directorate General “Civil Aviation Administration” (CAA) at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, insisting that ground operators comply with basic standards for passenger service. SOF Connect added that this had not yielded any results.

The two ground operators were selected by the ministry and have service contracts with the airlines, not with SOF Connect. Their activities are controlled by CAA, which is the only body that can influence the improvement of passenger service quality, the release said.

SOF Connect also stated that they are looking forward meeting with Transport Minister Grozdan Karadjov on Sunday and expect to find the most appropriate solution together in the interests of good service for passengers at the airport.

In response to inquiries regarding the situation that arose at Vasil Levski Airport on June 20, Border Police said in a statement that they received a call reporting that a passenger was unable to leave the aircraft. Officers on duty at Sofia Airport Border Police checkpoint were immediately dispatched and found that there were indeed passengers in the jet bridge between the plane and the terminal who were unable to exit. As the problem was outside the competence of Border Police and was being handled by the airport's ground operator, competent staff were immediately called to open the electronic doors on the way to the terminal exits.

The Border Police Directorate has no competence in the transport of passengers or in the servicing of the terminal building, aircraft and service buses.

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