Bulgaria's Cabinet has voted to turn the defunct military airport near the Black Sea town of Balchik into an active civilian airport serving the nearby sea resorts.
The Borisov government decided Wednesday to transfer the ownership of the Balchik Airport from the Defense Ministry to the Transport Ministry, acting in accordance that Prime Minister Boyko Borisov made in a nearby town, Kavarna, in early June 2011.
The Balchik Airport is located very close to the top resorts on Bulgaria's northern Black Sea coast – Albena and Golden Sands, among several others. At present, two international airport are serving the Bulgarian Black Sea coast – Varna Airport and Burgas Airport.
The Balchik Airport is supposed to help boost the development of Northeastern Bulgaria, according PM Borisov.
"I hope that we will also manage to fix the situation with the airport in the town of Balchik, and I think the state will do this, and we will give a chance for the business north of Varna for better communications," the Prime Minister said in Kavarna in early June, when he promised that it will be turned into a civilian port to be used for tourist flight, and that it will be granted on a concession shortly.
The Borisov Cabinet has recently revamped measures to revive several defunct airports around Bulgaria – including the Gorna Oryahovitsa Airport near Veliko Tarnovo, and the Straklevo Airport near Ruse; defunct airports in other locations such as Targovishte and Vidin could also be put on the table in the months to come.
For the time being, it is still unclear how much investor interest such airport projects could generate.
|