An unpopular sector in our country is bringing back Bulgarians who fled to work abroad.
It turns out that the aircraft repair industry has been developing at an accelerated pace in recent years.
The hunger for personnel is expanding, and companies are applying methods to find personnel even among high school students.
In 1954, the last domestically produced aircraft left the State Aircraft Factory in Lovech, BNT recalls.
After that, the factory began producing bicycles, motorcycles and "Balkan" cars. 70 years later, Bulgaria produces only drones, not airplanes, but it turns out to be a strong player in aircraft repairs.
In a hangar in Sofia, there are 3 lines that can simultaneously repair the most popular models of "Boeing" and "Airbus", owned by airlines from all over the world.
"Within our repair capabilities, we provide a full range of services related to basic aircraft maintenance, heavy repairs, modifications, and cabin reconfiguration. In addition to our 3 lines, we also have workshops on the 1st and 2nd floors," said Nedyalko Yosifov, marketing and sales at a Bulgarian aircraft repair company.
As in many other sectors, there is a shortage of qualified labor here. That's why the company is turning directly to high schools in the country.
"This is how we get staff. When they come to train them, we teach them different working methods than what they learned in their schools. We even take some of them on internships. For example, our entire planning department is made up of students who graduated from MEI," added Emilia Mladenova, CEO of a Bulgarian aircraft repair company.
The aircraft repair industry in our country is one of the few that manages to attract Bulgarians who have moved abroad to seek better working conditions.
"We have attracted quite a few Bulgarian employees who had gone abroad to return to us, as salaries in Bulgaria are already improving and we decided that in order to maintain this level of service we need to produce staff and we created a transport academy," shared Emilia Mladenova, CEO of a Bulgarian aircraft repair company.
"Our youngest employee is probably 18 years old, as we have a student who has just graduated, he was with us on an internship and signed a contract. The industry is very exciting and young people, especially boys who have a technical mind, want to develop in a technical direction with cars, aviation is probably the next level," commented Nedyalko Yosifov, marketing and sales at a Bulgarian aircraft repair company.
After the record collapse during the Covid pandemic, the aviation industry is expected to reach growth of $ 1 trillion in 2025 and carry a record over 5 billion passengers, which will be 16% more than in 2024.