Transport in Bulgaria
[2] Buses play a significant role in long-distance public transport, coaches are operated by private companies.
The flag carrier is Bulgaria Air, but a number of private charter companies also exist, operating domestic and international flights.
[7] In 2011 passenger traffic at Bulgaria's three major airports – Sofia, Varna and Burgas – grew up to near 10% on the year to 3.89 million in the first half of 2011, due to rise of customers using international routes and launch of new destinations.
[6] In the past aviation compared with road and railroad transport used to be a minor mode of freight movement, and only 860,000 passengers used Bulgarian airlines in 2001.
[9] In the early 2000s, Sofia Airport received substantial renovation, with aid from a Kuwaiti-led consortium, in anticipation of increased air connections with Europe.
[9] In 2004 Bulgaria Air transported 365,465 passengers to international destinations, including all major European cities, while in 2014 this number was at 897,422.
[11] In 2005 Bulgaria had some 6,238 kilometers of open access track owned by the state company "National Company Railway Infrastructure", including a 125 kilometers long 760 mm narrow gauge railway – the Septemvri-Dobrinishte narrow gauge line and 4,316 km were considered main lines.
The focus is on improving road connectors with the neighbouring countries and domestic connections linking major cities, such as Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas, Varna and Ruse.
Bulgaria has delayed building some key highway connections since the 1990s, but European Union membership is a strong incentive for completion.
[12] The 279-kilometer Burgas-Alexandroupolis Pipeline, still under negotiation among Bulgaria, Greece, and Russia in 2006, would provide a bypass of the overloaded Bosporus Strait.
[12] A 900-kilometer U.S.- financed alternate route, known as the AMBO pipeline, would bring oil from Burgas across Bulgaria and North Macedonia to the Albanian port of Vlore on the Adriatic Sea, bypassing both the Bosporus and Greece.
[12][needs update] With international investment, Bulgaria began constructing a new domestic gas transportation network beginning in 2005.
[12] The Russian Gazprom company planned a gas pipeline from Dimitrovgrad in eastern Bulgaria across Serbia, reaching the Adriatic Sea in Croatia.
[12] Some 400 kilometers of the planned Nabucco Pipeline, bringing gas from Azerbaijan and Iran to Central Europe, were to cross Bulgaria sometime before 2011.
Yacht ports[31] Balchik, Burgas, Byala, Golden Sands, Nesebar, Sozopol, Sveti Vlas, Varna ships by type: While most urban and suburban transport in Bulgaria is composed of buses (using an increasing number of CNG vehicles), around a dozen cities also have trolley bus networks.
