At the beginning of 2026, we will open a procedure for selecting a concessionaire at Plovdiv Airport. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Communications Grozdan Karadzhov announced in a discussion on the development of Southern Bulgaria, organized by 24 Chasa Daily in Plovdiv.
“The airport needs modernization, significant investment, new services and more capacity. The budget cannot provide these resources, but through a concession they can be attracted purposefully and quickly. We hope that there will be interest from investors, so that the airport will develop both the passenger and the cargo flights,” Grozdan Karadzhov was adamant.
The Deputy Prime Minister also announced that Plovdiv and Southern Bulgaria are already part of the new strategic “Black Sea – Aegean Sea” corridor. “Together with my colleagues from Greece and Romania, we will sign the framework for regional cooperation in Brussels next week, which will accelerate the planning, financing and construction of the new directions along the South-North axis,” he announced.
Grozdan Karadzhov said that digital routes are being built in parallel. There will be more than 390 km of high-performance optical networks in the Plovdiv region. They will connect the municipalities of Krichim, Perushtitsa, Saedinenie, Sopot, Karlovo, Hisarya, Kaloyanovo, Parvomay and Laki. Over 55,000 residents in small and remote places will get very fast 5G connectivity. “This means electronic services, remote work, modern education and business that does not depend on distance,” the Deputy Prime Minister explained.
In the regions of Pazardzhik, Haskovo and Smolyan, 610 km of highly efficient optical networks are being built. They provide modern 5G connectivity for over 63,000 people. There will also be high-speed connectivity to the Zlatograd border checkpoint, which is important for cross-border traffic to Greece, as well as to two of the busiest border checkpoints in the country – the Ivaylovgrad border checkpoint and the Svilengrad border checkpoint.