Public transport

This year, 44% of Bulgarians will vacation abroad, with 92% of these trips occurring within Europe. Greece is the top destination for 40% of travelers, followed by Italy at 22% and Turkey at 20%. Germany ranks fourth with 13% of respondents planning to visit.

In Plovdiv, the perpetrator of yet another shooting incident targeting a public transport bus remains unidentified, as police continue their search operations. Thankfully, there were no injuries reported in the recent incident, which occurred at the last stop on line number 9 in the "Trakia" residential area.

Infrastructure and Transport Minister Christos Staikouras on Friday boarded and took a ride on the first of the new electric buses that came into service after being added to the fleet of the Athens public bus company, OSY SA.

Beginning May 7, commuters in Sofia can look forward to improved public transit services with the introduction of modern low-floor trams on line 6 and enhanced frequency on line 8, as reported by "Spasi Sofia".

Passenger traffic at the country's 39 airports increased by 14.4% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the corresponding period in 2023.

A total of 7,876,353 passengers used the airports in the first three months of the year, compared to 6,884,904 passengers in the first quarter of last year.

In the same period, the number of flights also increased by 7.8% to 70,271.

Istanbul has geared up for a modern makeover on Taksim's İstiklal Avenue with plans to swap out the trams with traditional overhead power lines with battery-powered electric trams, which have already started their test runs.

The state of public transport in the Greek capital is disheartening, but without reliable public transport, traffic cannot be dealt with. Nor can the problem of pollution in the city be drastically reduced. 

Passengers traveling through Terminal 2 at Sofia Airport are now greeted with a modern convenience as six new electronic self-check counters for boarding cards have been unveiled. Deputy Minister of Transport Ana Natova and executive director of the airport's concessionaire company, Jesus Caballero, introduced the innovative system aimed at enhancing passenger experience.

Flights to and from Greek airports will be grounded February 28 when air traffic controllers will walk off the job to join a 24-hour nationwide strike public sector union ADEDY demanding pay rises.

Airlines are expected to cancel all the domestic and international flights.

The only the flights allowed will be emergency air transport.

The concept of "congestion charging," in which vehicles entering areas with heavy traffic are charged a fee, has recently been gaining traction as a potential solution to simultaneously alleviate traffic congestion and mitigate air pollution.