The procedure for granting the Gorna Oryahovitsa Airport concession will be open within days

So maybe you are fed up with the long waiting but reportedly the procedure for granting the concession for the management of the International Airport in Gorna Oryahovitsa will be open in a few days; the information was published in Trud Newspaper. The procedure is part of the Strategy for the development of the transport system of the Republic of Bulgaria until 2020. In the following days the Council of Ministers is expected to adopt a resolution to grant the management of the aerodrome to a financially stable private investor who is to strengthen the positions and widen the scope of the airport. The procedure itself will likely start in September and the concessionaire is expected to be chosen by the end of the year.

According to the Mayor of the Gorna Oryahovitsa Municipality, Dobromir Dobrev, the choice of the concessionaire is extremely important as the railway town has plans for its development as a major transport and industrial centre in Central North Bulgaria. A new industrial area near the airport will also be set up. He added that the Ministry of Defence had granted the Gorna Oryahovitsa Municipality the management of a large terrain adjacent to the airfield. It spans at 365,000 sqm and has 59 buildings built on it. The property will be divided into plots conforming to the needs of future small and medium sized enterprises expected to show interest – warehouses, commercial and office premises. There will also be car parks and green areas for workers’ recreation. The paper also says that the Municipality Regional Development Strategy shows plans for the construction of inter-modal freight terminal between the airport and the nearby railway container platform which is to boost cargo flights.

Gorna Oryahovitsa Airport is located in Central Northern Bulgaria and is equidistant to the largest administrative centres of Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna and Burgas as well as to Stara Zagora, Rousse and Pleven. The aerodrome is 10 km away from Veliko Tarnovo and only 2-3 km from the railway station of Gorna Oryahovitsa, which is a major intersection both for Bulgaria and internationally speaking. The airport is adjacent to mail arterial roads Sofia-Varna and Ruse-Svilengrad. The total length of the runways of the airport in Gorna Oryahovitsa is 2450 meters, approximately the same to the length of those in Varna and Plovdiv. There maximum wingspan of landing air crafts is up to 52 m long and 62 m wide. Peter Petrov, director of the airbase, informed that in 2014 Gorna Oryahovitsa airport had positive financial results. Since the beginning of 2015 the airport has serviced 1010 planes, of which 10 were cargo flights. Also 172 passengers and 210 tons of cargo passed through the airport this year. Recently the airport has become very popular for business and training flights.

The runway for landing and take-off can be extended, 3 more taxiways can be built, the platform can increase twofold in size and the construction of new modern cargo terminal is also possible. The realization of all these options means that beside operating more international passenger flights to and from various destinations, the airfield will also become the largest cargo airport in the Balkans. The revival of the airport will help attract investors, expanding business and economic activities and increase revenues from them. The passenger traffic in the region will grow significantly and this will contribute to the overall development of Veliko Tarnovo region.

Images: Internet