PM Borissov Sent Government Aircraft to Bring Stranded Bulgarian Passengers Home

At the request of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, the government Airbus 319 with 28th Air Detachment will conduct an extraordinary flight to Timisoara airport on 27^th of February in order to collected 113 Bulgarian citizens, who remained at Timisoara airport after their flight was redirected.

The passengers were blocked at Timisoara airport after a low-cost airline Ryanair was diverted from the London-Plovdiv route to the Romanian city's airport yesterday evening. Following a signal, the Bulgarian Embassy in Bucharest contacted the airport authorities as well as representatives of the airline.

So far, 62 citizens of the group travel to Sofia by buses sent by the Bulgarian consulate and are already on Bulgarian territory. 90 people are still at the airport in Timisoara, and another 23 - mothers with children, are accommodated in hotels in the surrounding area.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva and Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Ivaylo Moskovski organized the extra flight after it turned out that the airline could not provide an aircraft and that many families with young children needed assistance.

As the government airplane can carry 93 passengers, families with young children, the elderly and those in need of treatment will be placed on board. For the rest, a solution for land transport will be sought.

Up to now, the Bulgarian citizens have been provided with food vouchers. The Honorary Consul of the Republic of Bulgaria in Timisoara has undertaken to visit our compatriots at the airport and to cooperate because we have no diplomatic or consular representation on site.

The decision to send the government aircraft was made by the Prime Minister after he, Minister Zaharieva and the ombudsman Maya Manolova, were alerted about the situation by a number of citizens on social networks and on the phone.