Cargo Air Ltd ( bg, Карго Ер), branded as ''cargoair'', is a Bulgarian cargo airline headquartered in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

. The company operates charter flights throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

. The airline's main bases are

Leipzig/Halle Airport Leipzig/Halle Airport (German: ''Flughafen Leipzig/Halle'') is an international airport located in Schkeuditz, Saxony, Germany and serves both Leipzig, Saxony, and Halle, Saxony-Anhalt. It is Germany's 14th largest airport by passengers and ...

and

Sofia Airport Sofia Airport ( bg, Летище София, translit=Letishte Sofiya) is the main international airport of Bulgaria, located east of the centre of the capital Sofia. In 2019 the airport surpassed 7 million passengers for the first time. The ai ...

History

Cargoair was established on 4 July 1997 as Vega Airlines and was rebranded as Cargoair on 26 October 2006. In November 2007, Cargo Air was established as a General Sales Agent representative of the Belarusian cargo airline Ruby Star, offering to its customers logistics services with

Antonov An-12 The Antonov An-12 (Russian: Антонов Ан-12; NATO reporting name: Cub) is a four-engined turboprop transport aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. It is the military version of the Antonov An-10 and has many variants. For more than thr ...

and

Ilyushin Il-76 The Ilyushin Il-76 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-76; NATO reporting name: Candid) is a multi-purpose, fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter designed by the Soviet Union's Ilyushin design bureau. It was first planned as a comm ...

aircraft. The same year Cargoair also purchased a

Boeing 737-300F The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, ...

. From July 2009 Cargo Air began operations for

TNT Airways Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reage ...

on its European network. In September 2009 Cargoair purchased a second Boeing 737-300F. Due to increasing demand for long term

aircraft lease Aircraft leases are leases used by airlines and other aircraft operators. Airlines lease aircraft from other airlines or leasing companies for two main reasons: to operate aircraft without the financial burden of buying them, and to provide tempora ...

operations and ad-hoc charters, the company management decided to purchase a third Boeing 737-300F, delivered in September 2011. In February 2013 the company purchased a passenger

Boeing 737-400 The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Februa ...

; its conversion to freighter configuration was completed in July 2013. On 15 July 2013 the Boeing 737-400F began commercial service for

European Air Transport European Air Transport N.V./S.A. (EAT) was a cargo airline headquartered in Brussels Airport (Building 4-5) and in Zaventem, Belgium. The airline was owned by Deutsche Post and operated the group's DHL-branded parcel and express services in Euro ...

. In November 2013 Cargoair add second Boeing 737-400F in their fleet. In July 2015 Cargo Air added third

Boeing 737-400F The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Febru ...

also operated for

. In January 2016 Cargoair added fourth

. In February 2016 the airline purchased two Boeing 737-800BCF. In November and December 2016 the airline added two more

to their fleet. In summer 2017 Cargo Air started passenger/ACMI flights on behalf of Air Mediterranean and Travel Service.

Fleet

As of March 2023, the Cargo Air fleet consists of the following aircraft:

References

External links

* {{Airlines of Bulgaria Airlines of Bulgaria Airlines established in 2007 Cargo airlines Bulgarian companies established in 2007