EC Creates European Common Aviation Area, Bulgaria Joins

Òhe European Commission signed an agreement for the creation of a European Common Aviation Area with Bulgaria, seven more countries from South Eastern Europe, Norway and Iceland.
The seven states are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and the United Nations Mission in Kosovo.
The European Commission says the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA) will create a seamless and efficient European air transport network, linking European people, countries and cultures, and play a vital role in the further integration and development of Europe as a whole.

The negotiations on the ECAA Agreement with the South East European partners were launched in March 2005 and took less than a year to be concluded.Bulgaria's government approved an agreement for establishing the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA) at the end of April.
Transport Minister Petar Mutafchiev was authorized to launch the negotiations and sign the ECAA agreement.
The agreement would give Bulgarian airliners the right to operate in member states without permission from the air traffic administration.
The number of air carriers, which operate to and from Bulgaria, is expected to increase, together with the airports' revenues. Forecasts say the price of air carriers' tickets will go down.

Forecasts for aircraft movement between the EU and southeast Europe predict an average annual growth rate of more than 6% per annum between 2005 and 2011. As tourism is a growth area in the coastal regions in southeast Europe with potentially 414 airports in the region, there is an opportunity for further growth.