Bulgaria Air Wants Alma Tour Operator Declared Insolvent

Attorneys for Bulgaria Air, Bulgaria's national airline carrier and heir to Balkan Airlines, are still considering what are the exact legal steps to undertake in the dispute with tour operator, Alma Tour.

The statement was made Wednesday by Plamen Atanasov, CEO of Bulgarian Aviation Group, owner of Bulgaria Air.

Some 700 Russians, 200 Finns and dozens of persons from Lithuania waited for days to get home after their flights were canceled Friday and Saturday, due to an alleged EUR 3.6 M debt to carrier Bulgaria Air from operator Alma Tours.

It was also reported that Alma Tour Fly is collateral for a loan amounting to EUR 1 M from Emporiki Bank and for two loans from Bulgaria Air – of EUR 5.9 M and USD 21.3 M. A check of the Trade Register had revealed that, according to the contract, Bulgaria Air has the right to acquire Alma Tour Fly and take over its management if the latter fails to make payments on the loans.

When asked by the Bulgarian Dnevnik daily if the national carrier can demand declaring Alma Tour insolvent, Atansov replied that this was standard procedure. The CEO of Bulgaria Air, Yanko Georgiev, on his part, declined to comment on the dispute over the still-ongoing negotiations.

The two attended Wednesday the ceremony for the announcement of joint flights between the Bulgarian airlines and the Dutch KML.

Atanasov explained the annulment of the flights happened at this precise moment because Alma Tour's debt had reached the critical point – Bulgaria Air had worked with the tour operator for three years already, and payments have been often late, but the debt had now become staggering to the point it would affect Bulgaria Air remittances for deliveries of fuel, airport services and other fees.

The Commercial Director of the carrier, Maria Stoyanova, is quoted saying that the planes booked by Alma Tour had been full during the entire summer, but money from and for these tourists had never been submitted.

"We must resolve this issue and see how we will take the remaining tourists home; we are looking for a solution, including in partnership with the cabinet," Atanasov is quoted saying.

According to him, the tourists whose flights were cancelled did not have tickers, proving they were customers of Bulgaria Air and their names were missing from the list of reservations. He pointed out that the carrier only had the commitment to transport passengers with regular tickets.

The CEO also explained that Alma Tour has the right to issue tickets for regular flights, not only for charter ones, and it was unclear while it failed to do so.

Atanasov reiterated that the national carrier continues to service its 18 regular flights with 5 000 Russian customers per week from the Bulgarian Black Sea cities of Varna and Burgas to Moscow and St. Petersburg and would continue to do so until the end of the summer season.

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