Bulgaria Ski discussion board

No it's not actually Mat.

A company (yet un-named) from Sofia will soon start the construction works for a brand new civil airport near Gotse Delchev. Two years ago, Krosi Mountain Resort (JSC) bought 890 acres of land in the region of the ex-military runway from the Ministry of Defence. The airport is in the region of the Musomitsa village. Experts from BSA announced that it won’t have any environmental impact. The runway will be 2.5 km long and will be able to service domestic and international charter flights.

Unless you know something I don't?

Well, if you believe what The Standard writes then sure its going ahead. The site has been 'sold' to a couple of businessmen, but personally I don't believe they will be able to raise the 30 million euro needed to convert it as there is no financial or economic logic to the idea. Massive excess capacity exists in Sofia, the transfer time is not unreasonable and the demand over a 4 month season simply isn't there. Oh, and they have already laundered all their black money by building hotels in Bansko....

Sofia T2 is 90miles away and takes 2-2.5hrs - when I last went in Nov the onl hold up was the section of interesction in Sofia which was under heavy construction this took a good twenty mins to pass, the rest of the trip is more or less brand new road.

If they can build the airport within 40 miles of Bansko that would then service Borovets, Bansko & Pamps as tfr time would be vastly reduced for all destinaions.
Now clearly the question is IS THERE DEMAND FOR IT? Difficult to answer - big Govt investment in Infrastructure is long term o they believe clearly that long term this will boost the economy offering one o he shortest plane to piste anywhere and thus boost touism. In addition as currently there is very high unemployment big Govt civil works makes a lot of sense you suddenly are creaing jobs which should long run boost the country.

If however it is a private venture then it is a very different decision entirely. Clearly you have to have return on investment - and clearly the bank will require very detailed business plans detailing costs of th project & planned future revenue to repay the debt.

There are supposted to be many more runs & Pistes in the Basko vally - this will certainly take time but long run will certainly create jobs & really help the area.

The recent Bansko Championships really boosted Bansko no end and the more they have the more Punters will go.

Either way - if this does go ahead I would assume your talking about 5-7 year build time again that timescale is important from a Govt infra planning perspctive.