site.btaVasil Levski Airport Terminal 3 to Give Bulgaria Strategic Advantage, Operator's CEO Says

The addition of a third passenger terminal to the Vasil Levski Sofia Airport will give Bulgaria a strategic advantage, Jesus Caballero, CEO of SOF Connect, the operator of Sofia's international airport, said here on Wednesday.

With the new facility, the airport in the capital city will have the largest ground capacity in this part of Europe and will position itself as a regional hub, Caballero pointed out. He was speaking at the Second Annual Transport, Logistics and Freight Forwarding Forum, which is organized by the Manager magazine at Sofia's Inter Expo Center.

The SOF Connect CEO briefed his audience on the design characteristics of the future terminal, which is an important part of the operator's strategy to turn Vasil Levski into the region's first five-star airport with an emphasis on passenger experience.
 
With 34 gates at Terminals 2 and 3 (of which half at the new terminal), the expanded airport will have capacity to handle 20 million passengers annually.
 
At this point, Europe's airports are challenged by a lack of free ground capacity, and large-scale investment projects are being implemented. The airports' capability to cope with a growing passenger traffic is crucial for the airlines which expand their fleets, Caballero pointed out.

Terminal 3 is to go under construction in 2026 and is planned to be operational by April 2031. Part of the BGN 500 investment in the project will come from multilateral financial institutions, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank. Once Terminal 3 is finished and is ready to merge with Terminal 2, Terminal 1 is to be closed down.

Another major objective of SOF Connect is to achieve carbon neutrality for the Vasil Levski Airport by 2036.

Other participants in the Manager Magazine Forum include Vladimir Mihaylovski, representative of the International Financial Corporation (part of the World Bank) to Bulgaria, Manuela Naessl, EBRD Head of Bulgaria, Michael Stanton-Geddes, Director of Economics & Competition at ACI EUROPE (Airports Council International), and Pablo Escutia, head of the Digital Practice in Spain of the Kearney management consulting firm.