Sofia Airport review by B Cale

6 April 2008   Customer Rating :

"Public transport not advertised". Go to the Sofia Airport Web site. Click on Transport under Services. Then click on Buses on the left hand menu.

Sofia Airport review by Lawrie Hall

5 April 2008   Customer Rating :

Sofia Terminal 2 is easy to use. That's it. It is a big rip-off if you need to eat or drink. Mind you, yesterday (2/4/2008) the restaurant was closed, and knowing that Bulgaria Air only provides a sandwich on its 2030 flight to London made things difficult as well as expensive (if it had been open). Coffee in central Sofia 1.5 to 2 lev. airport 4.5 lev. 50cl beer in Sofia downtown 2 lev, small-town Bulgaria 1.2 lev. Airport 6 lev. Outrageous. Don't even ask about spirits. Gets even worse airside. So be prepared. There is a taxi prepayment if you arrive at the airport and want to go downtown, but be prepared to haggle to go back to the airport from the City. Public transport not advertised and incredibly difficult to find out about. Under no circumstances take a taxi from the Central Rail or bus Station. Taxi driver will calm you by saying he will use the meter - but will flag a tariff 4-5 times the official rate. Sad but true. Probably the worst airport in Europe for rip-off.

Sofia Airport review by Lee Melbourn

26 October 2007   Customer Rating :

Sofia Aiport T1 - Whilst everyone is raving about the new terminal, if you are unlucky and have to use T1 be prepared. It is awful. Probably one of the worst airports I have been to. Considering this is the capital of Bulgaria, there is nothing there. The only thing that was open was a news-stand. I bought a paper then discovered it was 7 days old! This place needs knocking down.

Sofia Airport review by Maurice Kardas

18 October 2007   Customer Rating :

It was a great relief that the new terminal was opened beginning of this year. Arriving is very quick. Departing is still a mess. Being an elite plus member of Skyteam I use the business check in. This counter however is normally not there or is being used by everybody. There are 2 business lounges. Use the one downstairs, a lot larger and more seats and tables to work on. Also duty free is improving. Pleasant airport although the business lounge could do with AC.

Sofia Airport review by Jack Sheldon

28 May 2007   Customer Rating :

Used Sofia this week and the new terminal made a favourable impression. On arrival, there was no line at immigration and having no luggage I was on the street within about 10 minutes of touch-down, before the person collecting me had turned up. On departure, arrived at the airport at 6:05 am for a 07:10 departure, had accomplished check-in, security and immigration with 10 minutes. The airport terminal is a bit spartan and there are still very few outlets. I was given access to the "business lounge", which looks like it was designed by EasyJet (it's all in bright orange too!). All access to and from planes seems to be by bus. There are finger docks but they don't seem to be in service at all and most of the planes are parked at remote gates. The one plane parked in front of a finger dock, wasn't attached to it. The toilets looked as though they hadn't been cleaned in a long time, but overall the airport gave a generally professional impression.

Sofia Airport review by George Tamamdjiev

14 February 2007   Customer Rating : n/a

The new terminal is now open and some of the airlines are using this facility. The building is brand new, very spacious. Some of the shops and restaurants are not opened yet but this airport is miles better than the old one.

Sofia Airport review by Ivan Ilieff
27 October 2006

Being a Bulgarian native I fly into and out of SOF on a regular basis. The old building cannot possibly handle the increasing passenger traffic and the launch of the new shiny terminal is being posponed since November of 2005 until present day. SOF has the unfriendliest check-in staff in Europe and the United States (New York excluded). Make sure you check the weight of your luggage carefuly before leaving for the airport and distribute the luggage evenly in your bags. I was made to remove stuff out of my 55-pound suitcase and put it in my 35 pound one at the check-in desk in front of the entire line or else threatened with an excess luggage charge. Early mornings turn SOF's departure hall into a zoo, since a few carriers (LH, OS, AZ, BA) have flights departing between 6 and 8AM carrying primarily connecting passengers for long-haul flights out of the major hubs in Europe. The airlines usually send their planes to arrive in Sofia late on the previous evening so that they can depart early in the morning. On several occasions, however, due to technical problems at SOF, (the explanation given when that actually happened to me was that the lighting system on the runway was out of commission) said planes never make it to SOF in the first place. So it is a good idea to check with your airline the night before your departure to ensure your plane had safely landed. Bar on the second floor (departure hall) is way too overpriced - they charge EUR3.50 for a beer, with an average price in the city for the same brand of about EUR1. Security and passport control are usually smooth and once on the airside a visit to the duty free shop is a must since it still offers the lowest prices of tobacco and liquor in the world (A carton of Marlboros costs EUR 15.00!!!) Transfer to the planes is by bus and the boarding procedure is nonexistent, since everyone is trying to cram on the plane at the same time. Bulgarians are very skilled in running and pushing people around, so even if you are the last one to board the bus, that is the first one to get off the bus and climb the stair onto the plane, there is no guarantee that you won't be overrun by the crowd. Overall the airport is inadequate for a capital city, hopefully the new terminal will soon change the gateway to my home country.

Sofia Airport review by Nakasone Yasuhiro
6 November 2005

Sofia Airport is easily one of the worst airports I have used. Avoid planes arriving during the day, especially in the early afternoon as there are 7 or 8 planes landing at the same time resulting in chaos and traveller misery. Before arrival: Prepare for small planes, full of people who carry all their baggage onboard. If you get on the plane late, there won't be place in the overhead compartments for your stuff. If possible, ask the flight attendant for a seat close to the exit. If you don't fly business, and are on a plane with an aft door, get a seat near the aft door. The locals flying on the plane spontaneously burst in applause on touch-down; it beats me why given what awaits you after landing. Arrival: Getting off the plane: Passengers are required to get off the plane and board a bus to the terminal building. Bring an umbrella and water-proof shoes in case of bad weather, because the buses stop away from the plane and the terminal building; and jumping over large pools of water is how you get to the bus/terminal. Try to get on the second bus, because it stops in front of the passport control booths that work better. Passport control: Sit on the right side of the bus, near the door, and be ready to run for the passport control booth. Avoid control booths after #3 (my experience is they tend to work slower than #1 to #3, and that the queues there are even less ordered than those in the first three. Boot #1 is the crew priority booth, and if several planes land at the same time you may wait a long time before the crews get checked. Booths are numbered 1 to maybe 8, the last four or five seem always closed, numbers run from right to left. Queuing is quite chaotic, so be prepared to be pushed, especially by the locals, to have people get in the line in front of you, etc. etc. Be prepared that the passport control official may go out of the booth at any time for a cup of coffee or a cigarette, and that he/she isn't answerable, polite or anything. Except for crews, there are no priority lines; flying business into or outside of Sofia is generally quite pointless, as there is almost no difference in the way business passengers are treated by the staff. Don't expect announcements of any kind. You're supposed to know what you're doing anyway, right? The luggage: there is random wait for the luggage. In bad weather, the bags come in wet and dirty. I have not had problems with lost baggage, so I can't comment on that. The customs: Very convenient. At night there are usually one or two sleepy people there who try to ignore the passengers. During the day there are more people, but I have never been asked for anything. The arrival hall: Another nightmare. Usually full of people who seem to have little or no buisness there, and get in the way of the folks with bags. Since the arrival hall is small, it is over quickly. Ignore the people who come to you and in broken English offer you a taxi ride. Fare to the city: go to the counter of OK Supertrans taxi in the right corner of the arrival hall, and have someone to get a cab for you and come with you to the car. Once I was refused a booked ride by one of the drivers because my bags were "too big". The fare is (Nov. 2005) around 25 eurocents a kilometer; a fare to the city center is about 6-8 leva. Before departure: again, avoid daytime flights. Early morning flights are early, but arrival, check-in, security, passport control and boarding are a breeze. Arrive about one hour before boarding, and double the time if you travel daytime. A traffic jam develops around 2:30pm because of all the people who come to the airport to greet arriving passengers, and that you may wait for up to 15-20 minutes on the last kilometre of the road to the airport. Check-in: there is no advantage in flying business on check-in. There is a serious advantage in early arrival. The people on the check-in speak some English, but are generally grumpy and unhelpful. Make sure you've got the seating you asked for, because the planes are usually crowded. Security control: this is a nightmare about as bad as the passport control on the way in. There are two checkpoints, and no matter how many people are queued up, usually only one is in operation. The queue usually goes halfway into the departure hall, in front of the check-in counters - undoubtedly very convenient for everyone. Prepare for a long wait here during daytime. Passport control: usually easy, the bottleneck is the security check. Boarding: board the bus last, and stand on the right side. Getting on the plane: Try to get first, in order to avoid full compartments.

Sofia Airport review by Sean Gibbons
30 October 2005

On arrival at Sofia airport, I and several hundred other passengers were forced to mill around the immigration control desks and wait for almost 45 minutes whilst passports and papers were checked. There are no barriers of any kind to encourage orderly queuing , and no advice is offered by the security officials who just stand and watch the chaos with apparent amusement, much to the annoyance of passengers. Once through immigration, I and a number of other passengers waited to collect our bags, only to discover 30 minutes later by observation alone that our luggage had not arrived. No announcement was made, passengers were not furnished with any information whatsoever, no customer service representation was available anywhere in the airport, and more importantly no apology was proffered at any time. I and others then queued for 3.5 hours to file missing luggage reports, without any trace of sympathy from airport staff , and passengers were not even offered of a glass of water during this time or the courtesy of any kind of explanation or public announcement. When I eventually managed to speak to the lost luggage company I was advised that my luggage had been routed via Vienna and would be arriving in Sofia at 11pm later that evening, but that I would have to wait a further 28 hours after the bag arrived in Sofia before to actually receive my luggage, as there is just ONE driver who delivers all delayed bags across Bulgaria! And if you have any complaints be warned, The Bulgarian Tourist Authority feel no need to provide any semblance of customer assistance at Sofia airport other than a solitary representative manning the information desk to deal with all customer enquiries, and any written complaints are ignored!!

Sofia Airport review by Mark Smith
4 August 2005

Sofia is let's say a 'compact' airport, but there's everything you need. It was interesting to see that all the major carriers seemed to land and depart at the same time, luckily Bulgaria Air landed just before the scurry of passengers on the British Airways plane landed, which meant we were first in line for passport control, I have heard rumours of the old airport and their strict security controls. Luckily you don't have to walk miles and miles, the airport is clean and quiet, until you get to the arrivals hall that is. Luckily they have also recently resurfaced the road to the airport. Security on the way out is hell though. As I recall, all the check-in desks opened at the same time, and unfortunately only one of the security areas opened, it was a matter of pushing and shoving, security seemed very laid back. Duty free is very cheap, but watch out for some of the shops, they can be very expensive, especially the ones selling souvenirs. While Sofia airport is neither technologically advanced 'nor overwhelming in choice of shops lounges and destinations, many of the international gateways it can be compared to (LHR, LAX) makes this place a pleasant experience of which I would not mind using again.

Sofia Airport review by Amjed Elbaloula
10 July 2005

Sofia Airport is definately no Prague or Budapest. Being small and compact with only 6 gates, it's quite practical and clean - with a small cafeteria & few duty free shops. The new terminal is currently under construction and will be complete by the end of 2005, not 2006. It promises to be modern with 8 air bridges and an expected annual flow of 2.5 million passengers annually.

Sofia Airport review by R Nelson

29 June 2005

Sofia Airport has become inadequate for the growth in traffic. Fortunately a new modern terminal with airbridges is being built and should be opened in August 2006. Passport control tends to be quite slow due to the fact that Air France, Lufthansa and BA tend to land at around the same time. The airport is very close to the center of the city, making travel time to the airport very short and inexpensive.

Sofia Airport review by Alex Callahan

2 November 2004

Small fairly modern terminal, not much choice for eating or shopping (although duty free shop is very cheap). Check in for a Bulgaria Air flight to London quick and indifferent. Friendly staff in landside cafe! Long queue to get airside. New terminal on the way soon - the airport will be able to handle extra capacity and will have airbridges.

Sofia Airport review by Antony Cole

8 October 2003

Sofia airport is a modern, comfortable airport with a nice feel to it. The terminal is suitably constructed, there is everything you need really. The airport should be even better with the construction of the finger terminal.

Sofia Airport review by Delyan Manchev

16 September 2003

Now, there is a taxi counter in Sofia airport. Very polite staff will ask for your direction and issue a slip with the number of the taxi waiting just outside the small terminal. The fare is 0.20$ per kilometer - the standardt city fare.

Sofia Airport review by M Hague

10 June 2003

You should have seen what the old terminal was like! To avoid the rip off mafia taxi touts that approach you in the arrivals hall, as you leave the arrivals terminal turn right and you'll see an ocean of bright yellow taxis - these are the cheapest in town and have the contract to work the airport. There has been lots of work done in the past couple of years to brighten the place up and the new terminal is coming in (fingers crossed) 2005.

Sofia Airport review by Peter Jordan

20 September 2002

As you might expect, not the best airport in the world. New terminal is basic and functional, check in staff are surly. Security was worryingly lax. Travelling SOF-FRA-MAN, with a colleague, we put our bags into the X-ray machine, I passed through the body scanner okay, but my colleague set the alarm off. He went back, removed sundry items from his pocket, including a mobile phone, put these on the desk between the scanner and the x-ray machine, walked through the scanner and picked the items straight back up again. Interestingly we didn't go through any more scans at Frankfurt, so he could have taken the unscreened stuff anywhere.





 

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