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Guide to Sofia Airport

Contributors: shorting
Updated Saturday 26th November, 2011

ICAO Code: LBSF
IATA Code: SOF

Latitude: N42° 41' 22"
Longitude E23° 24' 7"

Sunrise Today: 05:53
Sunset Today: 20:53

Sofia airport is a small airport with one rnw 09-27. The traffic is limited to small/medium size airplanes, majority of which are A319's, A320's and 737's. The airport is a home base for the flag carrier "Bulgaria Air". Most of the traffic comes from Lufthansa , AirFrance , British Airways , EasyJet , Wizz air , LOT , Qatar and ElAl. The biggest planes that show up on the airport are ElAl 767's and a daily service of DHL 757. There is a Lufthansa technik repair base located on the airport, the base brings some interesting planes as livery but they are from the A31X and A320 range.
Around the airport fences there are no problems for the spotters with the police but there is an internal airport security which can be asking questions , but in general if u are polite they are polite back.
There is a designated spotting terrace on Terminal 2 but its located into the secure area of the terminal so you need to hold a valid (departure) ticket and you need to talk to security for access to the terrace since the terrace itself is useualy locked. Also the terrace has windows trough which you have to take picture from , and those windows are useualy dirty.

Radio Frequencies

Tower - 118.100
App/Dep - 123.700

Links

http://www.sofia-airport.bg

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Sofia Airport Weather

All times on the weather descriptions are local

Observed at 12:30 - (5 mins ago)

23°C

Partly Cloudy
Clouds: Scattered Clouds at 6,500ft
Wind: Variable at 03 meters per sec
Visibility: Greater than 10km
QNH: 1010
Dew Point: 6°C
Runway in Use: Unable to determine, wind is variable

View the full forecast for Sofia Airport

Movements

A sample of the upcoming movements for Sofia.

We do not current have any movements for Sofia Airport.

View all movements for Sofia.

Spot A - RNW 27 Center line/Approach

This is a really good spot to take shots from 11am till dawn. Its exactly on the center line of the last stages of the approach. Planes are passing about 15-20m above your head. The access to the spot is generally easy but it is far from the airport Terminals so there is no direct access if you are coming from the main airport area. The easiest way to reach the spot is from "Botevgradsko shose" boulevard, moving away from Sofia on the E79 road, right after you pass the police post (its the only permanent police post on this road) you take the first right and follow the road untill you see the RWN 27 light pillars.

Sat Nav Co-ordinates
(Some locations may not be next to a road but the sat nav should get you pretty close using these co-ordinates)

Latitude: N42° 41' 41" (N42° 41.68')
Longitude: E23° 26' 45" (E23° 26.755')

Photos

Focal Length: 250mm

Focal Length: 400mm

View more photos taken at this location

Spot B - Middle of the runway , south

This is probably the best spot on Sofia airport. Its located almost in the middle of the runway. The sun is always behind your back during the whole year. There is an elevation which is perfect when taking shots of the planes landing or taking off from both 09 and 27 runways. The main taxiway H is passing right in front of the spot so you can get great pictures of planes exiting when landing on 09 or planes taxing to takeoff from runway 27. On your left is taxiway L which is used by the planes taxing to or from runway 27 on their way to stand 1,2,3 (which are used quite often). On this spot there is a access gate which has different structure from the rest of the fence and it has quite big gaps which you can use to take amazing shots of the passing planes.
The spot is accessible only trough the park next to Terminal 2 of the airport , it takes about 15 min walking but its wort it. There is a bus (number 384) line running from the center of the city to Terminal 2.

Sat Nav Co-ordinates
(Some locations may not be next to a road but the sat nav should get you pretty close using these co-ordinates)

Latitude: N42° 41' 36" (N42° 41.603')
Longitude: E23° 25' 32" (E23° 25.535')

Photos

Focal Length: 150mm

Focal Length: 135mm

Focal Length: 195mm

Focal Length: 180mm

View more photos taken at this location

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Guide Content

Radio Frequencies
Links
Weather
Photo Spots
- Spot A - RNW 27 Center line/Approach
- Spot B - Middle of the runway , south
Comments
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