site.btaUPDATED Sofia Airport Builds All-New Baggage System

A contract for an all-new baggage handling system (BHS) was signed last week by Sofia Airport CEO Jesus Caballero and French consortium Alstef Group CEO Nicolas Breton, the airport's press office said here Tuesday. The contract is worth over BGN 20 million and includes the supply, installation and maintenance of the passenger baggage management system.

The implementation of the system is a major step in the improvement of passenger and flight services with a guaranteed level of security and reliability of operations. The existing BHS is dependent on one obsolete machine, while the new one has four with a total weight of seven tonnes and a capacity of up to 2,400 bags per hour. This will allow the secure handling of millions of checked bags per year.

The system transports checked baggage from the check-in area to the flight through four levels of security and supports triple modular redundancy systems, which ensure the highest level of reliability and efficiency in baggage handling. The new BHS allows both full self-service (so-called self-bag drop) at flight pre-check-in and assisted service.

"The project is part of the overall transformation of the airport, for which we are investing more than BGN 150 million until the end of 2025," Caballero said at the signing of the contract.

Once the new BHS becomes operational, Terminal 2 will be able to serve a significantly higher number of passengers. The implementation of the system is part of the airport's development plan, which will allow Terminal 2 to take all the traffic from the almost 70-year-old Terminal 1 building.