Bulgarian airline GullivAir has started weekly direct Sofia to Phuket flights for the 2026/2027 winter season, and its first service landed at Phuket International Airport on Friday, November 6. The flights leave Sofia on Thursdays and come back from Phuket on Sundays, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) said the airline also plans a route to Bangkok.
The first flight left Vasil Levski Sofia Airport at 4.20pm on November 5 and landed in Phuket at 6.55am the next morning with 218 passengers on board.
A TAT delegation met the passengers and crew on arrival and gave them Thai souvenirs, with staff from the TAT Phuket Office, the airline and the airport also attending.
Under the timetable published by TTR Weekly, flights depart Sofia at 4.20pm every Thursday and are due in Phuket at 6am on Friday, while the return flight leaves Phuket at 11.05pm on Sundays and reaches Sofia at 5am on Monday, with a flying time of about 8 hours 40 minutes. All times are local.
The TAT announced that the route uses an Airbus A330-200 and described the service as seasonal without giving an end date.
TAT is also using the launch to draw Romanian business to the Andaman coast. From November 2 to 10, its Prague office, the Romanian agency Unite for Travel and flydubai are taking 12 Romanian travel operators on a familiarisation trip to Krabi, Phuket and Phang Nga, which includes the Phi Phi Islands, the Similan Islands, Ao Phang Nga National Park, Phuket Old Town and the Ko Panyi community.
The Romanian operators also held business meetings with 15 Thai tourism businesses, at Pakasai Resort in Krabi on November 4 and at OZO Phuket on November 9.
The agency called the Balkans “an important growth market for Thailand” and said linking Phuket with Krabi and Phang Nga could spread visitors to more destinations and bring more business to local operators.
This winter’s service follows a weekly GullivAir charter on the same route last season, which ran from December 18, 2025, to February 26, 2026, according to schedule data reported by Aeroroutes. In December 2024, Romanian airline HiSky operated the first direct charter flight from Bucharest to Phuket.
TAT figures show 97,655 visitors from the Balkan region between January 1 and October 31 this year, an increase of 5.42% on the same period last year.
Romania accounted for 41,758 of them, up 5.40%, and Bulgaria for 15,029, up 8.07%, out of 6,266,567 arrivals from Europe as a whole over the same 10 months.
Related news:
- Kuwait Airways begins twice-weekly direct Phuket flights
- Belavia launches direct Minsk-Bangkok flights, Phuket next
- Thai Lion Air restores Udon Thani to Pattaya flights to four days a week
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