The government of Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov plans to end the deferral granted years ago to Sofia Airport for paying the concession fee to the state. According to the updated Medium-Term Budget Forecast for the period 2026 – 2028, it is planned to resume payments under the concession agreement from the beginning of 2026.
The deferral was initially introduced in 2021 during the last cabinet of Boyko Borisov, when the then Minister of Transport Rosen Zhelyazkov signed an agreement for a 10-year grace period during which the operator of the capital's airport would not make the mandatory annual payments.
The updated document states that the decision to resume payments will be made after an analysis and assessment by the Minister of Transport and Communications, which must show that passenger traffic and revenues at Sofia Airport have recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
However, there is no public information to date whether such an analysis has already been carried out. However, in recent months, there has been an increase in passenger traffic, which may influence the cabinet's decision.
In February 2025, the acting Minister of Transport Krasimira Stoyanova stated that the postponement would not be lifted, as the indicators had not yet fully recovered. A few months later, in June, the current Minister Grozdan Karadjov announced that from 2026 the airport must start paying its dues.
According to him, the annual remuneration will be determined as the greater of a fixed amount of about 24.5 million euros or 32% of annual revenues.
According to public data, unpaid debts are currently accumulating for the first years of the Sofia Airport concession, which will be rescheduled and paid at a later stage, within the concession period.
Despite the challenges, Minister Karadjov emphasized that the airport's concession model is more efficient than state management.
Over 20 years, the state operator has contributed about 88.6 million euros, while the new model envisages over 624 million euros in investments for the concession period. By February 2025, investments worth 58 million euros have already been made, with over 240 million euros expected to be invested in the construction of Terminal 3.