Bulgaria Air

Is Bulgaria Air safe?

Yes. Bulgaria Air has flown since December 2002 without a fatal accident or a written-off aircraft. It is overseen by Bulgaria's civil aviation authority under EU rules and passed the IATA safety audit (IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary). We score it 86, close to Croatia Airlines and ahead of TAROM.

Two things stop it from scoring higher. In 2021 an A320 lost an engine shortly after take-off because of a fuel leak, and the investigators blamed mistakes in maintenance work done before the flight. And the half of the fleet that is not new consists of older A320s and E190s.

What happened on the 2021 Sharm el-Sheikh flight?

On 22 May 2021, flight FB8509 left Sofia for Sharm el-Sheikh with 137 people on board. Passengers smelled kerosene during take-off. In the climb, the left engine shut itself down, and the crew declared a PAN, stopped climbing at about 23,000 feet and returned to Sofia, landing about 35 minutes after departure.

Bulgaria's investigation unit, the AAIU, published its final report in November 2022. The fuel pump on the left engine had just been replaced, and the engineers who did it, at the contractor Lufthansa Technik Sofia, had not followed the process correctly. The leak should have shown up in the engine test after the work, but the test the manufacturer recommends runs the engine at idle, and this leak only appeared at higher power. Fuel leaked into the engine casing, and the engine flamed out when its fuel mixture became too lean.

The report also points at the cockpit. The crew had not been told about the pump change and had not checked the aircraft documents. During the climb the left engine was burning 33% more fuel than the right one, and no one noticed. Bulgaria Air's own procedures say a flight with a fuel leak should end at once; the crew turned back only when the engine quit. Nobody was hurt, but it is the kind of chain, maintenance error plus missed monitoring, that our incidents factor exists to catch.

Does Bulgaria Air have a good safety record?

For an airline of its size, yes. The Aviation Safety Network lists one Bulgaria Air accident: in December 2005 a Boeing 737-500 on flight FB472 hit severe turbulence over Italy, and a passenger and a flight attendant were seriously hurt. That is now outside our 20-year window.

One event from a sister airline does not count here. In 2006 Hemus Air's owners bought Bulgaria Air, and Hemus's routes later moved to the Bulgaria Air brand. On 9 January 2008 a Hemus Air BAe 146, flying for the Romanian airline Blue Air, drifted left on landing at Bacău, touched down on snow beside the centreline and its nose gear collapsed. All 101 people on board were unhurt and the aircraft was repaired. We found no record that Hemus Air's operating certificate was merged into Bulgaria Air's, so under our merger rule the event stays with Hemus Air.

The rest of the file is routine: a bird strike at Rijeka in 2017, and a cracked windshield that forced an E190 to divert to Vienna in December 2018. An older case at Paris-CDG in 2014, when a Bulgaria Air A319 and a Turkish-registered A320 were involved in a runway incursion, is outside our 10-year incidents window.

How old is Bulgaria Air's fleet?

Half new, half older. Bulgaria Air leased seven Airbus A220s from Air Lease Corporation, five -300s and two -100s, delivered new from June 2023 to March 2025. They fly most scheduled routes out of Sofia.

The rest is five older A320s and four Embraer E190s of about 14 years old. Bulgaria Air had planned to retire the E190s by the end of 2025, but they now fly for Air Serbia under a wet lease that runs until the end of the 2027 summer season, with Bulgaria Air pilots and cabin crew and maintenance in Sofia. The last A319 has gone. The A220's Pratt & Whitney engines need early inspections, which can mean schedule changes but is not a reason to avoid the type.

Flying Bulgaria Air: what to know

• On Air Serbia, check the operator. If your Air Serbia booking says "operated by Bulgaria Air", you fly a Bulgaria Air E190 with a Bulgarian crew. This page applies to that flight, not Air Serbia's.
• Tel Aviv flights can stop at short notice. Bulgaria Air cancelled all its Tel Aviv flights in early March 2026 after an official notice from Israeli airport authorities, and offered free rebooking or refunds. Check the day before you fly to Israel.
• Bulgaria Air also flies for other airlines. In summer 2026 TUI fly Netherlands used a Bulgaria Air A320 and crew between Amsterdam and Ohrid. If your ticket names Bulgaria Air as the operator, this record is the one that applies.

How we scored it

The accident record (92) and oversight (90) are strong: no fatal accident in 24 years and EU oversight with IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary. The incidents factor (78) loses points for the 2021 engine failure and the maintenance and crew failures behind it. The fleet (76) is held back by the older A320s and E190s, and the environment (78) by Tel Aviv flights in a region where airspace can close at short notice.