Gorna Oryahovitsa Airport is an international airport near

Veliko Tarnovo Veliko Tarnovo ( bg, Велико Търново, Veliko Tărnovo, ; "Great Tarnovo") is a town in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. Often referred as the "''City of the Tsars''", Veliko Tarnovo ...

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 ...

. It is used predominantly for cargo, as the last regular passenger flights to Sofia were abolished in the end of the last decade. The airport is believed to have very good prospective, because of its situation in the centre of the country, the lack of big airports nearby, and the huge number of tourists in the area coming from abroad, but unfortunately it is the most undeveloped of the five international airports in Bulgaria.

History

The airport is established in 1925 and was originally used primarily by

Bulgarian Air Force The Bulgarian Air Force ( bg, Военновъздушни сили, Voennovazdushni sili) is one of the three branches of the Military of Bulgaria, the other two being the Bulgarian Navy and Bulgarian land forces. Its mission is to guard and p ...

. In 1948 is opened a regular civil air route to

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 ...

, the third such in the country. The current track was completed in 1973 and has concrete construction, asphalt in 1982. In 1978, completed a new terminal and administration building, and in 1994, a new building for air traffic management. During the 1970s and 1980s, Balkan Airlines operated regular flights to Sofia and Varna. In 1995, they became an international airport and it is open border and customs post. In 2002, the government decided to start a concession for the airport. By November 2011, there were three concession procedures ran by the government but they still can't find an operator for the airport. In 2016, the airport was concessioned for 35 years after a decision by the Bulgarian government. The airport was sold to "Gorna Oryahovitsa Airport", in which two Bulgarian companies hold the shares.

Overview

The airport has been equipped with a high intensity light system – First Category, for landing and taking off in conditions of poor visibility. There is a 5 stand apron that can accommodate large airplanes:

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...

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 th ...

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 commer ...

and A 320. Although there are no scheduled flights to and from the airport, there is a small number of charters and business jets using it. The charter flights are mainly used from football teams, which are playing with

PFC Litex Lovech Litex ( bg, Литекс) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Lovech, which currently competes in the Second League. The club was founded in 1921 as Hisarya Sports Club. The club's home ground is the Gradski Stadion ...

in the

Lovech Lovech ( bg, Ловеч, Lovech, ) is a List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, city in north-central Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the Lovech Province and of the subordinate Lovech Municipality. The city is located about northeast f ...

town which is 80 km farther from the airport. Until 2002, the airport was used by the Bulgarian division of

Ideal Standard Ideal Standard is a privately held multinational plumbing fixture company headquartered in Belgium. It operates primarily in Europe and Latin America. The brand dates back to 1949, when it was used to brand fixtures of the foreign operations of t ...

as cargo hub for its Bulgarian production, but ceased operations due to changes in logistics. In 2011, the airport had 68 cargo flights with 19 tons of cargo. According to the Civil Aviation Administration in Bulgaria, in 2011, the passenger traffic at GOZ was 562 passengers and 1,351 airfreight movements.

Statistics

Airlines and destinations

As of 2023, there are no scheduled services to and from Gorna Oryahovitsa Airport.

References

External links

*
Gorna.bg Informational portal for municipality of Gorna Oryahovitsa (Bulgarian)

{{authority control Airports in Bulgaria Gorna Oryahovitsa Buildings and structures in Veliko Tarnovo Province