The Deputy Prime Minister Karadjov imposes severe measures against the ground operator "Swissport Bulgaria" after another incident at Sofia Airport.

Deputy Prime Minister Groydan Karadjov announced that the license of the ground operator "Swissport Bulgaria" AD, which operates at Sofia "Vasil Levski" Airport, will be temporarily revoked from June 23. Its activity will be taken over by the other two operators. This decision comes after an incident in which nearly 300 people were blocked for about an hour at the airport on their arrival from London on Friday evening.

"It is unacceptable for the third time to have to deal with problems caused by ground operators. This is too much. That is why drastic sanctions and measures will follow. Bulgarian citizens have the right to the same service as they receive at other European airports," said the Deputy Prime Minister.

According to Karadjov, the chaos in ground handling is also a result of lax control by the General Directorate "Civil Aviation Administration" (GDCA). He stressed that serious structural changes will be made in the work of the Directorate, as it is responsible for effective control over ground operators.

The Deputy Prime Minister has instructed the Director General of the GDCA to submit a report with specific measures to improve passenger service by the end of tomorrow. The Secretary General of the Directorate will be released, as he did not fulfill his obligation to submit such a report last week.

Karadjov pointed out that back in February, "SOF Connect" has submitted a request to the GDCA for the introduction of minimum quality standards to be applied by ground operators. However, this proposal has remained stagnant in the Directorate, and the employees responsible for this will face the respective consequences.

Regarding the specific incident on Friday, the check found that the door through which passengers were supposed to pass was faulty. Although all ground operators were informed to use another door, this was not done.

The Deputy Prime Minister stated that the cause of the incident is both the inadequate response of the ground operator's employees and the organization of the movement of passengers arriving from third countries. They land on a sleeve, then are led through corridors and stairs back to the runway, to be transported by bus about 200 meters to passport control, and only then exit the airport.

Karadjov expects "SOF Connect" to urgently investigate and propose architectural solutions for permanent improvement of this organization, until the commissioning of Terminal 3. He stated that a solution must be found urgently to prevent such situations, and checks will continue to be carried out every week, and if necessary, more licenses will be revoked.