Bulgaria Air (Bulgarian name: България Ер) is the national airline carrier of Bulgaria, based in the capital, Sofia. It operates scheduled services to 13 countries in Western Europe, Czech Republic, Israel and Russia. Its main base is Sofia Airport.
The airline was established in 2002 as a successor to the insolvent Balkan Bulgarian Airlines. By order of the Minister of Transportation and Communications it was declared the flag carrier in November 2002, starting operations on 4 December 2002. The name and logo were determined by a public competition. Bulgaria Air was privatized in 2006; although it was rumoured that the government wanted to sell the carrier to a major foreign investor, a union of locally-owned companies, led by Hemus Air, emerged as the buyer with Italian Air One being the only other contender.
Hemus Air reportedly paid Euro 6.6m and promised to invest a further Euro 86m over the next five years. It is seeking to acquire up to 15 new aircraft to expand activities in Bulgaria as a result.
Bulgaria Air Boeing 737-500Hemus Air was selected as the preferred bidder for the sale of Bulgaria Air by the Bulgarian government. Hemus and Bulgaria Air have already started codesharing on the Sofia-Berlin Tegel route and are expected to further coordinate their schedules and operations early in 2007.
Partners include KLM, Air France, Brussels Airlines, Czech Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Malev Hungarian Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Austrian Airlines, Alitalia , Air One & Aeroflot.
Source: www.wikipedia.org