hi cuddles i have flown with them 4 times and flying with them again next saturday and i can honestly say i have never had any trouble whatsoever wether im just lucky i dont know but i have never encountered a tatty plane or rude staff i have had more trouble on the more well known airlines if ya want to know anything else just pm me x x

have been going for years now and air crew are always helpfull and polite and very good pilots June

Michelle, My last five trips have been with Bulgaria Air from Gatwick to Varna, most recently being three weeks ago, I cannot fault them, clean and tidy planes, both the Boeing and the Airbus, staff pleasant always a smile, I do believe a lof of the negative reports are of Balkan Holidays planes that fly with the prefix BGH. Bulgaria Air is FB. I am at Gatwick on the 24th July if you want a chat about Bulgaria and flight let me know. Your Booking in Area will be Zone E in the South Terminal. Tonyt.

Hi Michelle,

I flew out to Varna with Bulgaria Air on Friday - the only negative comment that I could make is that the flight was about 45 minutes late leaving Gatwick and an hour late arriving at Varna, but delays can happen with any airline.

The flight itself, as with all of my Bulgaria Air flights (half a dozen or so) was fine, and the cabin crew were extremely helpful & welcoming as usual.

Baldur

Thanks guys, you have all really put my mind at rest!!! x
Thanks Tony for the offer. Our flight is at 5.20pm so we will be at Gatwick just after 3pm. What time will you be around? A chat would be great!

I seem to recall the airline Bulgarian Air and the associated Bulgarian Air Charter were formed from the defunct Balkan Bulgarian Airlines. In the days of the communist state - the airline (Balkan) were typically poor - operating Russian built Tupolev TU 134 and TU 154 aircraft.

Times change and they operate Western Built machines on scheduled and charter operations.

Never been with them myself but I am sure they operate a reasonable service.

Nivsy.

Bulgaria Air operate modern Boeing 737-500's.

Darren

Hi Cuddles1970, we have used Bulgaria Air in the past and always found them to be fine, in fact they were usually on time more than BA, having said that we have used BA more over the last year or so as the prices and times etc have suited us better. Like Tonyt said I think most of the negative reports have been regarding Balkan Holiday flights. Have a good time. Nels

Cuddles 1970. sent you a p.m. Tonyt

hi,
you proberbly read about the old tupolev aircraft.they could look and sound a bit ropey.we flew on them a few years ago but never had any problems.the stewardess could look a little surely but they were ok.
don't worry enjoy your hols

Thanks so much to everyone who has taken the time to reply to me and reassure me. I will be looking forward to the Holiday much more now!
Can I also ask what Bulgaria Air mean on their website when they say light food is served in flight. What are we to expect?

Michelle

I believe Bulgarian air got rid of their tatty planes a few years ago you should be ok =)

I quite liked the old TU-154Ms - always seemed to be a smooth flight and landing (that could be down to the HUGE landing gear they had).

John.

John 123. They were better landing than the 737 and airbus 320 they use now.

I believe the TU-154 had the bigger landing gear to land on 'poor' airfields and even gravel so they should have been good on 'top class' runways...............

John.

It takes more than just the landing gear to create smooth landings. The airborne characteristics (wing) and airframe as well as weather plays a major role. I believe the TU-154 had plenty of ground effect because of the wing design so had a bigger 'cussion' of air when landing. The 747 is noted for smooth landings for the same reason.

Darren

just flown with Bulgaria Air from Newcastle to Bourgas and back.

the planes for me were 737-500, the seats are three each side of isle down the centre.

the planes prefix was FB and they were completely white as all markings had been removed (for some reasons)

no problems flight wise or landing, i think at bourgas the issue is the runway and taxi ways are concrete blocks as opposed to tarmac at uk airports so you feel like you have landed in a field when you get to bourgas.

What i would say is that if you have kids, take some pre=packed sanwiches or food for them (and yourself) The flight is 3 hours 20 minutes and they have no inflight meal service. The drinks bar comes through three times during the flight, but you get nothing else.

the only gripe i have about this flight for me was the legroom is pretty poor, but then that is a personal quibble and in the end i got to my holiday destination and back with no problems.

Although on way home just as we were about to board we were delayed for an hour and a half as they offloaded all our bags from the plane we were due to board and put us on one which had just arrived.

hi all i am new to the forum, i have flew a number of times with bulgarian air, and never had a problem with them. the meal is abit naff, but all in all, i cant fault them