Archive BH Air Balkan Holidays at Cardiff Airport

[superking]

That's sure some good going for a charter flight. Good on them for the next 40 years.When the flights started compared tonow things have sure changed in Bulgaria.When I was driving trucks to middle east we had to change so much monet into Bulgarian money and spend it before we left the country. We used to have a huge steak meal at a place called the steps.I don't know if a similar thing happened with airline pax.

 

[Jerry]

Balkan Holidays have just announced its taken the very hard decision to cancel the entire Bulgaria summer 2020 season.

https://www.Facebook Groups.com/BalkanHolidaysSummer

View attachment 16895

As posted on the LBA forum CWL won't be seeing BH Air this year. Hopefully we'll see them back in May 2021.

 

[Jerry]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1302531594666807296

 

[bluebols]

Apparently a great place to go ski-ing , very very reasonable for accommodation, passes and food and beer.

Would love to see them organise a couple of flights to test the water.

 

[Jerry]

Yes even a few one off charters would be nice.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Apparently a great place to go ski-ing , very very reasonable for accommodation, passes and food and beer.

Would love to see them organise a couple of flights to test the water.

Yes even a few one off charters would be nice.

I remember ski seasons to Plovdiv from CWL, probably 25 years ago. It might have been with Thomson but I'm not sure.

Looking at February this year (the last month to be unaffected by the virus) there were regular flights from 13 UK airports to Sofia. Two of the airports also had flights to Plovdiv (Luton and perhaps surprisingly Belfast International). I think that Sofia and Plovdiv are the main Bulgarian winter sports airports. In addition Luton saw flights to Burgas and Varna, and again perhaps surprisingly Liverpool had a new route to Varna.

In all, 149,000 travellers travelled between the UK and Bulgaria in February this year either on regular charter flights or scheduled services.

I'm not sure what percentage of ski holiday travellers were Balkan Holidays customers.

In terms of the 13 airports with flights to Bulgaria last February, Southend was the smallest measured by annual passenger throughput. To get an idea of its overall passenger volume SEN handled 2.035 million passengers in 2019 against CWL's 1.655 million.

It's a slightly odd market in that Luton and Stansted carried the most travellers, both with twice as many as Gatwick and two and a half times as many as Heathrow.

CWL has a disappointing ski season provision and has done for many years. Perhaps Welsh residents prefer the sun because the winter cruise market at CWL has been strong. 🙂

(All stats courtesy of CAA.)

 

[mathers_wales_uk]

I remember seeing Plovdiv on the boards from Cardiff maybe winter of 2006/2007 I’m sure it was operated by Balkan Holidays unless it was something that went on sale but never sold.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I remember seeing Plovdiv on the boards from Cardiff maybe winter of 2006/2007 I’m sure it was operated by Balkan Holidays unless it was something that went on sale but never sold.

You're right.

A check with CAA stats shows that CWL's Plovdiv route began at the end of 2005 and carried on through to the end of the ski season in 2006. It restarted at the end of 2006 and operated until the end of the ski season in 2007.

Passengers numbers were:

2005 88 (no doubt the first outbound of the season)
2006 1879
2007 2588.

It didn't return for the ski season of 2007-2008.

I usually think that events of the past are much closer to the present day than is the case. This time for some reason I got it the wrong way round with my thoughts that Plovdid occurred 25 years ago.

It must have been Balkan Holidays as you say, not TUI/Thomson which was my thought.

 

[mathers_wales_uk]

Inside information as I remember seeing it above the check-in desks during my early years. I started in 2006

 

[JENNYJET]

Ah! Balkan. I miss the days when an old ish Tupolev would turn up to break the monotony of the normal. If there was a problem, they got a hammer and sorted it as Soviet built craft were solid. They didn't go tech like the modern Airbus or Boeing types, needing electronic engineering and diagnostic computer tools to identify a loose fitting.

Isn't nostalgia wonderful?

 

[Seasider]

It is when you are of a certain age. 🙂

 

[Seasider]

It is when you are of a certain age. 🙂

 

[Seasider]

Sorry about that, don't know what happened. I'll blame it on my age.

 

[Jerry]

Quick look at what Balkan are offering for summer 2021.
Bourgas will operate 1 weekly on Saturday from 22nd May to 18th September BOJ-CWL 06.30-0810 CWL-BOJ 09.00-14.40.
They also offer holidays to the Varna are using their Bourgas flight and to Dubrovnik and Montenegro 1 weekly on Thursdays using TUI.

 

[CM.]

No more Balkan Holidays for the remainder of this summer.

Holidays to Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Northern Cyprus & Malta | Balkan Holidays

Great value holidays & flights to Bulgaria with the Balkan experts. Specialising in holidays to Northern Cyprus, Croatia, Slovenia, Malta and Montenegro. ATOL protected, low deposit £49pp, transfers and 22kg bags included.

www.balkanholidays.co.uk

 

[Jerry]

Not surprised, look forward to seeing them back next year.

 

[Jerry]

Tomorrow sees the return of Balkan Holidays and their weekly flight to Burgas. Good to see them back after the route being suspended because of the pandemic.
View attachment 25976

 

[Jerry]

Unfortunately it looks like Balkan will be using TUI flights to Bourgas for summer 2025 and not operating their own like they have in the past.

 

[Samdorob]

Unfortunately it looks like Balkan will be using TUI flights to Bourgas for summer 2025 and not operating their own like they have in the past.

I wonder why that it is? It looks like they’re using jet2 from Leeds, but back to BH air in 2026.

As for Cardiff, I can see they’re still set to operate their own weekly flight in 2026 - whether that will change.

Perhaps they struggled to secure an aircraft this year. They normally wet lease don’t they?

 

[Jerry]

Perhaps they struggled to secure an aircraft this year. They normally wet lease don’t they?

There are reports that the loads weren't that great last year but it's possible that they can't get an aircraft or have decided as a tour operator it's probably better to use other airlines flights. They do use TUI for Croatia from Cardiff. As for 2026 we'll have to wait and see.