Balkan Bulgarian Airlines

Balkan Airlines was Bulgaria's government-owned national carrier between 1946 and 2002 and, at its height, one of Europe's largest air carriers.

Although Bulgaria had a short-lived airline (Bunavad) in 1927, the country was too poor to afford investing in modern air transport until after World War II. In 1946, the Ministry of Transport and Communications formed an Administration of Air Communications (Direkcia na vwzdusnite swobxenia, DVS). Since Bulgaria was regarded as a combatant on the defeated Axis side, the DVS could only contract with France for the supply of several Atelier d'Avions Coulombe Toucan aircraft (AAC Toucans or French-built Junkers Ju-52/3ms). Pending their delivery, Bulgarian airmen flew the nation's first longer air services: several government flights to the peace negotiations in Paris. They also flew intensive relief flights to Montenegro in Yugoslavia, where there was famine. These flights used German-built Ju-52 aircraft (Bulgarian service designation Sova) delivered before the war to the Bulgarian Air Army or captured during the war from the Germans.

DVS officially launched services under the Bulgarian Air Lines (Bwlgarski vwzdusni linii) name on 29 June 1947 with a Ju-52 flight from Sofia via Plovdiv to Burgas. Other services soon followed. By the close of the year, the DVS had ordered several Soviet-built DC-3s (Li-2s). The Soviet forces stationed in Bulgaria took an interest in the DVS and by late 1947 took it into joint ownership as they had done with all airlines of former Axis East-European countries. The resulting airline was called TABSO: the Bulgarian-Soviet Transport Aviation Corporation or "Transportno-aviacionno bwlgaro-swvetsko obedinenie." The Ju-52s gradually faded from the scene as TABSO reequipped with Li-2s. These more modern machines allowed the airline ot expand services on a proper footing.

Soviet equity in TABSO was reacquired by the Bulgarian government in 1954 as part of the Soviet forces' withdrawal from Bulgaria. The airline was now simply known as "Tabso": a brand name without any meaning which survived until 1967, often in the shadow of the headline phrase Bulgarian Air Transport. In 1956, Tabso bought its first Il-14 aircraft. In 1962, it began Il-18 services which, alongside the expansion of Bulgaria's inclusive-tour tourism industry, began to put the airline's name on the European and world map. The turboprop type overflew the Equator to Kenya and the Atlantic to Peru. By 1967, An-24s had arrived for domestic and regional flights.

By the mid-60s tourism was a major hard currency earner for Bulgaria and Tabso faced home-grown competition. Executives of the Teksim trading company had decided to start their own aviation business which included crop-spraying and inclusive-tour charter airline operations. Despite trying to buy Caravelles, they ended up buying more Il-18s under heavy Soviet and Bulgarian political pressure. The Teksim venture proved a success and a thorn in the side of Tabso. By 1967, Tabso had the inside track in government circles, and the Teksim operation was disbanded. Amid rumours of scandal and embezzling, several Teksim directors were sent to jail. Their venture had operated under the Tabso banner for reasons of expediency (not least international rights).

Before Teksim, Tabso had been a socialist "mono-airline," encompassing all commercial aviation from crop-spraying, through scheduled services and charter flights, to running airports. However, Teksim had broken the mould. In 1967, enthusiasts within Tabso and newcomers from Teksim launched Bulair -- a charter subsidiary of Tabso. This managed to survive for five years before being reabsorbed into the parent company.

In early 1968, Tabso was rebranded Balkan Bulgarian Airlines (Bulgarski vwzdusni linii "Balkan"). The wider commercial aviation scene was put under Balkan's control via subsidiaries such as the aforementioned Bulair, Selskostopanska aviacia or SSA (the Agricultural Aviation Company) and a separate profit centre which performed ad-hoc aviation contracting, mostly with helicopters.

The jet age arrived at Balkan in late August 1968 with Tu-134 aircraft. The airline was the first outside the USSR to put the type into operation. This led to a close association with the Tupolev design bureau for the next 20 years and more. There were several reasons why Bulgaria was allowed to put a new Soviet type into service ahead of more important Soviet-bloc nations. Andrei Tupolev was President of the Soviet-Bulgarian Society. He had cemented personal links with his Bulgarian counterpart, formidable wartime Resistance figure Cola Dragoyqeva. She lobbied him for delivery preferences in return for lobbying the Bulgarian authorities to buy his products. And indeed, Balkan never bought Ilyushin's Il-62 long-range airliner, preferring to misuse its Tu-154s for long-range work. Similarly, it eschewed Ilyushin's Il-86 wide-body despite arguably having a role for it on its sea or ski charter flights.

As part of its Tupolev association, in 1971 Balkan was the first user of the stretched Tu-134A. In 1972, the airline was the launch export customer of the Tu-154. It also launched non-Soviet use of the Tu-145A, Tu-154B, Tu-154B-2 and Tu-154M. Balkan was a useful test-bed for new ideas by the Tupolev bureau. The airline pioneered the use of three-person flightdeck crews on the Tu-154 by getting rid of navigators. Balkan also threw away the Tu-154's concrete ballast trim on which conservative Tupolev engineers had insisted. In the mid 1980s, a team of Bulgarian engineers interlinked the automatic flight control systems of the airline's Tu-154s with Omega receivers, enabling very accurate automatic long-range overwater navigation. In the 90s, Balkan was among the first to fit GPS navigation to its Tu-154 fleet.

As the Soviet-bloc economies gradually entered into stagnation in the 1970s, Balkan continued growing apace. By the mid/late 70s, it was carrying three million passengers a year: more than any Soviet-bloc airline other than the Aeroflot directorates. The fleet comprised aforementioned types plus An-12s for cargo (since late 1969) and Yak-40 regional jets for short-haul routes (since 1974). The comprehensive route system covered Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. With the delivery of more and more Tu-154s, Balkan opened longer-range routes, including ones to Zimbabwe, Angola and Nigeria in sub-Equatorial Africa, and to Sri Lanka and Vietnam in Southern Asia. A Tu-154B was flown non-stop from Montreal to Sofia, a distance of over 7000km (4200 miles) on a charter flight.

In 1986, Balkan was restructured as part of a wholesale shakeup of the late Socialist economy in an attempt to make it more productive and manageable. The airline was divorced from functions such as running airports. It had suffered disastrous traffic falls after the Comecon fuel crisis of 1979, when the number of passengers carried collapsed to under a million. By the late 80s, loads were back up to 70s levels. Of the three million annual passengers, a third were carried on domestic services, another third on charter flights, and the remaining million: on scheduled international routes.

On 10 November 1989, Bulgaria's long-ruling strongman Jivkov was toppled in a palace coup and Bulgaria began moving away from the Soviet bloc. Within a year, Balkan had been restructured yet again, with Hemus Air emerging from within it as a "second force" state-owned airline with hazy functions. Private airlines began to appear, most important among them Singapore-backed JES Air which launched services to New York and Singapore using A310s.

In late 1990, Balkan received the first of four new Boeing 737-500s from Ansett Worldwide. They were slated to replace Tu-134s and make the carrier more competitive with West European airlines. By mid-1991, Balkan had leased two Boeing 767-200ERs from Air France to compete with failing JES Air on North American and Southern Asian routes. At the same time, Balkan surprised observers by appearing to change aeroplane and engine "gauge" yet again with the acquisition of two V2500-powered A320s from Oryx. The disparate variety of Soviet types remained in service alongside the new arrivals. This tampering with the fleet was symptomatic of a desperate lack of consensus and direction among Balkan managers who were stranded after Soviet aid ended and Bulgaria began aligning with the West.

The 1990s were a time of headlong decline at Balkan. The airline experienced a mild form of the "In and Out Syndrome" whereby former managers of state-owned industry formed private companies to supply the industries they had once managed, and yet other private companies to buy-out the production. The aim was to control both supply and sales, charging high prices and paying low prices to strangulate state industry and buy it at knock-down prices. The entire Bulgarian economy was in deep recession. This was due to severe political instability at home and protracted wars in neighbouring Yugoslavia. These factors scared potential investors and tourists and cut off the country from many trading partners.

By 1998 Balkan's 767s returned to Air France and the A320s were passed on to other lessees. The Tu-154B fleet was crying out for replacement, and the Tu-154M was not far behind. Bulgaria's government appeared to pledge some finds for A310 acquisition so that long-range services could be sustained, but nothing happened. Meanwhile, a privatisation offer was made, long after the once-proud Balkan name had lost whatever sheen it had.

Throughout the 90s, there had been rumours of investor interest in Balkan. The rumours consistently named Russian and German airline interests which were said to be eager to snap-up Balkan in any privatisation offer. There was also loud lobbying by the airline's managers for a management buyout. In fact, in a late-1999 move that surprised many, Balkan was acquired by a Dutch branch of Israel's Zeevi Group for some 200,000 dollars. Zeevi was not a name known within aviation circles, and speculation was rife that the company, active in construction, wanted a piece of the action in the refurbishment of Bulgaria's battered international airports.

Despite a change of livery, subsequent events at Balkan seemed to confirm the worst expectations. Because of the Israeli connection, the airline lost its traditionally lucrative Arab routes at a stroke. Its assets seemed to be being put under the hammer in a classic asset-stripping exercise. Much of the overblown staff establishment was declared redundant. By early 2001, Balkan's fleet was not even up to the task of meeting the airline's summer charter commitments. Despite taking on some used 737-300s and one ATR42, the airline was underfunded. After a short service break in early 2001, Balkan halted all services for a long period just as the peak summer season approached, declaring insolvency. Zeevi management left to begin a complex lawsuit against the Bulgarian government whom they claimed had sold them a pup.

In fact, over time Zeevi did develop a cogent business vision for Balkan: to sever links with the overstaffed Soviet-equipped past and make the airline a compact, profitable 737-equipped carrier. They were stymied by their own managerial incompetence, staff and government resistance, and the foreseeable misfortune of losing the Arab routes.

Meanwhile, the government installed receivers to run the company. Short of cash, in 2002 they sold Balkan's valuable six weekly slots for Heathrow airport to British Airways for six million dollars. This caused a major outcry in Bulgaria and ultimately resulted in Balkan's final closure in October that year. By then, nothing of genuine value had been left to sell other than the much-tarnished Balkan name.

Balkan was succeeded as national carrier by newly formed Bulgaria Air. Although the new airline was briefly known as Balkan Air Tour, and although it succeeded as lessee of several Balkan Boeing 737s, it has nothing in common with the former national carrier.

External links

• Former Balkan Airlines Official Website (http://www.balkan.com/menu2.htm)
• Historical timetables (http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/lz.htm)