Plovdiv Airport

Plovdiv Airport (Bulgarian: Летище Пловдив, Letishte Plovdiv) (IATA: PDV, ICAO: LBPD) is the airport of the second largest city in Bulgaria, Plovdiv and is the country's 4th busiest behind Sofia, Burgas & Varna. It is often referred to as Plovdiv Krumovo Airport, after a small village located 6 km south-east away from the city on the main Plovdiv-Asenovgrad highway.

Due to its location near the popular ski resorts Bansko and Pamporovo, the airport is most active during the winter season. The main traffic at present is charter flights to and from the United Kingdom, Ireland and Russia. The airport also plays a vital role in case of emergencies and is sometimes used as an alternate for Sofia Airport, which is almost 150 km away or 1.5-hour drive on the Trakiya motorway.

On 25 December 2009 the first service to a scheduled destination, Moscow, started. This was the first scheduled flight since 1981.

The airport handled 103,535 passengers in 2014.

History

The beginning of civil aviation at Plovdiv came with the first test flight between Sofia-Plovdiv-Yambol and Burgas early in 1928. In 1947 nterim civilian flights between Sofia and Plovdiv was carried out.

Plovdiv

Plovdiv (Bulgarian: Пловдив pronounced [plɔfˈdif]) is the second-largest city in Bulgaria with a population of 341,567 inhabitants as of 2015. It is the administrative center of Plovdiv Province and the municipalities of the City of Plovdiv, Maritsa municipality, and Rodopi municipality, whose municipal body had a population of 404,665 inhabitants as of 2015. It is an important economic, transport, cultural, and educational center,

Plovdiv has evidence of habitation since the 6th millennium BC. By the end of the 4th millennium BC there already was an established Neolithic settlement there. In the 12th century BC the village evolved into a real town populated by Thracians ranking it among world's oldest cities. It was possibly invaded by Persians, later by Greeks, Celts, Romans, Goths, Huns, Bulgarians, Slav-Vikings, Crusaders and Turks. On 4 January 1878, Plovdiv was liberated from Ottoman rule by the Russian army. It remained within the borders of Bulgaria until July of the same year, when it became the capital of the autonomous Ottoman region of Eastern Rumelia. In 1885, Plovdiv and Eastern Rumelia joined Bulgaria.

Plovdiv Province

Coordinates: 42°10′N 24°45′E / 42.167°N 24.750°E / 42.167; 24.750

Plovdiv Province (Bulgarian: Област Пловдив: Oblast Plovdiv, former name Plovdiv okrug) is a province in central southern Bulgaria. It comprises 18 municipalities (общини, obshtini, sing. общинa, obshtina) on a territory of 5,972.9 km² with a population, as of February 2011, of 683,027 inhabitants. The province is named after its administrative and industrial centre — the city of Plovdiv.

Geography

Plovdiv Province includes parts of the Upper Thracian Plain, the Rhodopes, Sredna Gora, the Sub-Balkan valleys and Stara Planina, including its highest peak, Botev (2,376m). The main rivers in the province are Maritsa, Stryama, Pyasachnik. There are numerous dams, the most important of which is Pyasachnik. Mineral springs are abundant; there are several major spa resorts — Hisarya, Narechen, Banya and minor spas at Klisura, Asenovgrad, Kuklen, Rosino, Krasnovo, Stoletovo and others. There are many natural landmarks, especially in the Central Balkan National Park, including the spectacular waterfall Raysko Praskalo, the highest in the Balkans.