Hemus Air ( Bulgarian title: Хемус Ер) was an

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

based in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. It operated scheduled domestic and international services from

and

Varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city ** Varna Province ** Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna ** Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis * Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy * Varna (Šabac), a village in Serbia Asia * Var ...

, as well as charter, cargo and air ambulance services. Its main base was

Sofia Airport Sofia Vasil Levski Airport () is the main international airport of Bulgaria, located east of the centre of the capital Sofia. In 2019 the airport surpassed 7 million passengers for the first time. The airport serves as the home base for BH Air ...

, with a hub at

Varna Airport Varna Airport () is the airport of Varna, the historical maritime capital of Bulgaria. Varna Airport is the third largest airport in Bulgaria. It is located 10 kilometers from the center of Varna near the town of Aksakovo. The airport serves ...

Flight International ''Flight International'', formerly ''Flight'', is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", i ...

3 April 2007 After the acquisition of

Bulgaria Air Bulgaria Air () is the flag carrier airline of Bulgaria, with its headquarters at Vasil Levski Sofia Airport in Sofia. The company is owned by Chimimport AD and is a leader in terms of local market share. The airline operates short and medium ha ...

, all of Hemus Air's destinations are now under the plate of Bulgaria Air.

History

Hemus Air, named after the ancient name for the

Balkan mountains The Balkan mountain range is located in the eastern part of the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It is conventionally taken to begin at the peak of Vrashka Chuka on the border between Bulgaria and Serbia. It then runs f ...

, is owned by Varna-based industrial/financial enterprise TIM. The airline was established and started operations in 1986, when it branched off from

Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Balkan Bulgarian Airlines () was Bulgaria's government-owned flag carrier airline between 1947 and 2002. During the 1970s, the airline became a significant European carrier. The company encountered financial instability following the fall of co ...

. It initially operated as a separate department providing ambulance services, flight calibration and aerial photography. In 1996 it became a separate legal entity from Balkan and was named Hemus Air. The company was privatized by Bulgarian corporate investors in 2002 and has faced stiff competition from foreign carriers, as well as the newly established successor of Balkan,

. Hemus Air's management pledged to unite the major Bulgarian airlines and was selected as the preferred bidder for the sale of Bulgaria Air by the Bulgarian government. In November 2006, Balkan Hemus Group sealed a deal to purchase Bulgaria Air with a 99.99% share of the airline for €6.6 million. The new airline will operate under the Bulgaria Air brand. Hemus promised to invest a further €86m over the next five years. Hemus and Bulgaria Air began to coordinate their schedules and operations in 2007. As of February 2009, all Hemus Air aircraft are operating for the parent company, Bulgaria Air.

Destinations

All Hemus Air destinations are now operated under the commercial brand of Bulgaria Air.

Fleet

The Hemus Air fleet includes the following aircraft (at July 2012): Most of these aircraft are operating for Bulgaria Air until the two airlines merge; then they will all be transferred to Bulgaria Air's fleet.

Retired fleet

Boeing 737-300 The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Febru ...

Boeing 737-400 The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Febru ...

Tupolev Tu-134 The Tupolev Tu-134 (NATO reporting name: Crusty) is a twin-engined, narrow-body jet airliner built in the Soviet Union for short and medium-haul routes from 1966 to 1989. The original version featured a glazed-nose design and, like certain oth ...

Tupolev Tu-154 The Tupolev Tu-154 (; NATO reporting name: "Careless") is a three-engined, medium-range, narrow-body airliner designed in the mid-1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. A workhorse of Soviet and (subsequently) Russian airlines for several decades, ...

Yakovlev Yak-40 The Yakovlev Yak-40 (; NATO reporting name: Codling) is a regional jet designed in Soviet Union by Yakovlev. The trijet's maiden flight was in 1966, and it was in production from 1967 to 1981. It was introduced to service in 1968, with export mo ...

Let L-410 Turbolet The Let L-410 Turbolet is a twin-engine short-range transport aircraft designed and produced by the Czech Republic, Czech aircraft manufacturer Aircraft Industries, Let Kunovice (named Aircraft Industries since 2005). It was developed as the ''L ...

Accidents and incidents

* On 2 August 1988, Yak-40 LZ-DOK failed to get airborne and crashed after it overran the runway at Sofia Airport, killing 29 of 37 on board. All civil traffic had been halted at Sofia Airport to allow

Todor Zhivkov Todor Hristov Zhivkov ( ; 7 September 1911 – 5 August 1998) was a Bulgarians, Bulgarian communist statesman who served as the ''de facto'' leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB) from 1954 until 1989 as General Secretary of the Cen ...

's Tu-154 to take off. But the Tu-154 was delayed, so ATC cleared the Yak-40 to take off "as quickly as possible". In their haste, the crew forgot to set the trim correctly. * Hemus Air Flight 7081 was hijacked en route from

Beirut International Airport Beirut ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the fourth-largest city in the Levant region and the sixteenth-largest i ...

to Varna on 3 September 1996. The hijacker, a member of the

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP; ) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation ...

, allowed the 150 passengers to leave the aircraft at Varna and he and the eight crew members continued to

Oslo Airport, Gardermoen Oslo Airport () , alternatively referred to as Oslo Gardermoen Airport or simply Gardermoen, is an international airport serving Oslo, the capital and most populous city of Norway. The airport is the second largest in Scandinavia and the Nord ...

where he gave up. He initially claimed that he only wanted to seek

asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea * ...

, but he later claimed he was under orders to crash the aircraft into

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

Notes

References

External links

Bulgaria Air
{{IATA members, europe Defunct airlines of Bulgaria Airlines established in 1991 Airlines disestablished in 2010 Bulgarian companies established in 1991 2010 disestablishments in Bulgaria