Plovdiv Ripe For Ruin With Airport Development?

I personally wish this wasn’t happening. The City of Plovdiv is one of the Bulgaria best kept secrets. It’s a City with a historic and interesting past with many cultures that have left their mark there. The surrounding area is stunning beautiful with nature and unspoilt countryside including mountain regions mainly left as it should, untouched with tourism. The new airport will only start the destruction of the area, hopefully most tourists will bypass Plovdiv and go to the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast resorts that have seem the change already happened due to tourism.

Plovdiv airport's new terminal is poised to transform the region into a major tourist destination and substantially increase investment in south-central Bulgaria, Stroitelstvo Gradut has reported.

Investments poured into the facility's overhaul and modernisation amount to 40 million leva. These are funds secured by the Ministry of Transportation and the chief airport operator, Letishte Plovdiv. The new modern terminal complies with international requirements for safety. Moreover, access to and from the facility has been improved thanks to construction of the terminal's new infrastructure.

The facility's service level is designated as C class by IATA with 1000 passengers in a peak hour, with the airport being able to process a total of 500 000 passengers annually.

Plovdiv Airport's new terminal will commence regular operations on August 1 2009.

"We wanted to achieve a modern, technical, state of the art facility, which will incorporate functionality, comfort and efficiency," said chief architect Ilko Nikolov from Arkont-A, the company awarded the construction contract from a national design competition involving 14 other teams.

With the airport commencing operation in August, local authorities believe it will be a great stimuli for the local economy, investment and regional development. "The new cargo terminal concession, which is to be put in action, will have its positive impact over the local development and economy," said Transport Minister, Peter Mutafchiev, quoted by Stroitelstvo Gradut.

Source: www.sofiaecho.com