Sofia Airport

Not Verified | I have travelled through that airport many times over the course of the last twenty years. For an airport this size the amenities are adequate. What is really peculiar about it is the crass rudeness of the personnel there that you can occasionally encounter. I have had to deal with personnel who were rude, disrespectful, incompetent and lacked any sense of customer service. Not only that but the personnel there tends to gang up against the passengers when the passengers try to complain about the staff's rude and unprofessional behavior and even threaten the passengers that they will not allow them on the airplane if the passengers keep creating problems. With that said, I have also run into nice and friendly personnel who actually smile at you and wish you a pleasant flight. I would also say that over the last close to twenty years I have used that airport the staff hospitality and friendliness has improved a lot. However the occasional crass rudeness and disrespect that you run into - a remnant of communism when the concept of customer service and quality did not exist - can really ruin it for you and make you want to avoid the airport at all cost.

Not Verified | The worst experience I have had at the airport in security check. I had to remove everything I had, laptop, liquid, electronics and after I passed they didn’t want to speak English. They started opening my bag, removing all the clothes and put everything in the dirty boxes. I kept asking why they were doing this and they just laughed. They passed all my clothes in the boxes under the screen and then nothing. I asked to speak with the supervisor who was even ruder than the staff. Due to my job, I am traveling on a weekly basis in all countries and so many airports and never has such a bad experience happened.

✅ Trip Verified | The surroundings area beautiful, neat and tidy but the airport looks already dated. In terms of facilities, shopping and ways to spend your time waiting it is extremely basic.

✅ Trip Verified | They hold me hostage even after I told them I’m from USA I have documents to travel here. They won’t look at the paperwork and 13 people total lock us out said you can’t leave the airport you must go back. Very mean people no human rights I have no words. They won’t talk to you specially if English.

✅ Trip Verified | We went skiing in Borovets and flew in and out of Sofia airport. The airport seemed clean, and well organised. The duty free shopping was quite expensive (buy before if you can). My main problem was the lack of variety of food outlets within departures. It appears that 'Sky Restaurants' have the monopoly on the food in there. Little to no variety unless you like pizza or sandwiches. Overpriced, and poor quality. Staff were rude and appeared bored at the larger restaurant version, but one of the smaller outlets the staff were fine. Sofia Airport - why have you just let one company have four different premises? We heard one guy who was vegan come in for something to eat, but there was nothing suitable on the menu. They advised, he tried one of the duty free shops. Eat beforehand, your money is better spent elsewhere.

✅ Trip Verified | One of the worst airports in Europe. No smoking area, border police super unfriendly, security check like in jail. T1 looks like after a bombing, T2 looks like new but dirty.

✅ Trip Verified | The worst passport control staff ever. Extremely rude, arrogant and ignorant. They don't speak English or they don't want to. They kept talking Bulgarian to me telling me what to do while I told them I don't speak Bulgarian. I had a Dutch travel document but they did not allow me to enter, they didn't tell me what the problem is, when I asked them they shouted at me very rudly saying "no problem!" and I had to wait so long my mother and I without knowing what was the matter. All the staff were very rude, very aggressive disrespectful tone of speaking. Can't understand how these guys are even employed in an airport and treat passengers like this. After like more than an hour of waiting they searched our bags piece by piece, it was ridiculous, can't believe in the airport of the capital of Bulgaria and they use their hands to search our things, our bags were already checked in the airport of Eindhoven in the Netherlands, don't know why they had to check again. After they were finished with searching they brought us two meaningless papers to sign which said that these were our stuff and things like that. It was really very offensive and bad experience.

✅ Trip Verified | Low service level, usual delays, 0 customer care, long lines for security check, due to saving in personnel. Priority boarding is a waste of money in this airport. 30 minutes on the bus, waiting to go to the aircraft, with closed doors. The main issue is that they don't care. Regular delays, minimum 30 minutes, usually around 1 hour. If not for work, would avoid it!

✅ Trip Verified | Airport was clean, passport control didn't take long at all. I did not shop there nor did I sit. The wi-fi was a bit slow and the signal wasn't ideal. If you decide to take a taxi, agree on a price to go to your hotel. It should not be more than 30 BGL. Agree on a price before you get it, the metres run like crazy. Someone from the taxi company may greet you. The ride from downtown Athens to the airport is a flat 38 Euros and is 3 times as far to put things into perspective.

✅ Trip Verified | I found the airport to be clean, less congested than most in Europe, spacious and with sufficient seating areas. Unfortunately there is no smoking area. Security staff are very rude which makes me wonder why they do feel they should act like that, wifi connection non-existent or very slow in some areas and most things on shops way more expensive than outside. Bring your own food. My bag was completely emptied by security staff which made me had to pack everything again in front of everyone.