Several carriers appear in that catalogue with no terminal field at all, so the catalogue assigns them nothing. An operational conflict also exists: on the live departure board on September 4, 2026, Arkia flight IZ901 departs from Terminal 2, whereas the catalogue marks Arkia as Terminal 1, with both entries published by the airport operator. Travelers must follow Sofia Airport’s instruction: check flight information on its website for the terminal your flight departs from or lands at, because assignments update continuously. The practical version: check the flight, because the airline alone will not always tell you.
Transferring Between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2
Passengers transferring between terminals, or landing at Terminal 1 to reach the metro at Terminal 2, use the shuttle bus. It operates 24/7 along the route Terminal 1 → Terminal 2 → Terminal 1, with a reverse cycle Terminal 2 → Terminal 1 → Terminal 2 published as well. Departures run every 40 minutes between 00:00 and 08:00, 20 minutes 08:00–09:00, 30 minutes 09:00–10:30, 20 minutes 10:30–14:30, 30 minutes 14:30–17:00, 20 minutes 17:00–20:00, and 40 minutes between 20:00 and 24:00.
Two things the airport does not put on that page: how long the ride takes, and whether it costs anything. Build the connection on the interval, not on a duration.
Metro Line 4 from Terminal 2
For travelers landing at Terminal 2, the rail option is Metro Line 4 (M4). The terminus, “Летище София”, is situated in immediate proximity to Terminal 2, and the official timetable publishes a direct direction between that station and Serdika.
On weekdays, Line 4 departures on the Mladost 1 to Airport section run at intervals ranging from 7 minutes to 14 minutes depending on the time band. From Serdika toward the airport, the first departure is 05:08:30 and the last is 23:23:00. From “Летище София” toward Slivnitsa, the first service departs at 05:21:00 and the last departs at 23:38:30. The operator’s current pages publish no journey time for that ride, so this guide gives none.
Transit Fares, Card Payments, and Luggage Rules
The tariff pages carry a bilingual conflict. The operator’s Bulgarian page lists a single metro journey at €0.80 / 1.56 лв, while its English page gives €0.80 / 1.86 BGN. Both pages agree on the payable euro price: a single journey costs €0.80, which is the fare payable under Bulgaria’s 2026 currency rules. The operator’s current tariff page shows no separate or premium airport fare.
Short-term transport documents took effect on January 1, 2026. A “Ticket 30 plus” can be paid for with a bank card at a validator inside the vehicle or at the metro entry barriers, which means a card in your pocket is enough to get you moving. Two pieces of hand luggage travel free with a valid transport document; additional luggage requires a separate transport document. Note the regulatory ceiling: the quoted rule provides no published dimensional definition of large luggage.
Surface Bus Connections: Line 84 and Night Line N4
Municipal surface buses connect both terminals with central Sofia. Bus Line 84 connects the city center at Gen. Gurko Street with Terminal 2 and Terminal 1. For late-night arrivals, Night Line N4 serves Terminal 2.
Line 84 runs an all-day timetable, and the airport says the exact times, including the first and last vehicle, are published on the Urban Mobility Center website rather than its own.
Taxi Service and Highway Distance
For taxis, Sofia Airport names Yellow!. It tells arriving passengers to look for Yellow! cars at the main taxi ranks to the right of both terminals, or to request the service at the Yellow! offices in the arrivals halls.
The airport’s page publishes no taxi tariff and no fare range. On distance, the operator’s own wording is that the distance between the central city area and Sofia Airport is “about 10 km” — and that page gives no car journey time, so neither does this guide.
Currency and Payments: The 2026 Euro Changeover
Bulgaria’s currency changed in 2026, which puts a great deal of older travel advice out of date. Bulgaria introduced the euro on January 1, 2026. The transitional dual-circulation period during which lev could still be spent in shops ended on January 31, 2026. From February 1, 2026, the euro is the sole legal tender in Bulgaria, confirmed by the Bulgarian National Bank.
The official fixed rate is 1.95583 lev to €1. The Bulgarian National Bank exchanges lev for euro free of charge, in unlimited quantities and with no time limit. Free exchange at commercial banks and Bulgarian Posts branches was guaranteed from January 1 through June 30, 2026, and the terms change after that date. Separately, credit institutions may not refuse to exchange until December 31, 2026. National VAT is 20% standard and 9% reduced, and the National Revenue Agency confirms that foreign persons living outside the European Union have the right to a VAT refund, subject to conditions.
A bank card works on the transport network, as above. Beyond that, the primary sources checked here make no general statement about card acceptance across the country, so this guide makes none either.
Schengen Borders, Document Rules, and the Civil Clock
Immigration operates under European Schengen rules. Bulgaria is fully inside the Schengen area: border controls at internal air and maritime frontiers were abolished on March 31, 2024, and checks at internal land borders were removed on January 1, 2025. For United Kingdom and United States citizens, all time spent in Bulgaria counts against the standard Schengen allowance of 90 days within any 180-day period. There is no separate Bulgarian allocation; visits consume days from your shared European allowance.
Passports must remain valid for at least three months beyond intended departure from the Schengen area and must have been issued within the previous ten years. The European Entry/Exit System (EES) has been fully operational across all Schengen countries since April 10, 2026, and is active on September 8, 2026. The European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) is not in force on September 8, 2026; the European Commission indicates implementation in the final quarter of 2026, with the date unannounced.
Bulgaria observes Eastern European Time. In 2026, daylight saving summer time began on March 29 at 03:00 local time and ends on October 25, matching UK clock changes. Both countries are on summer time on September 8, 2026, and their standard zones differ by two hours, so Sofia runs two hours ahead of London that day — arithmetic from the official clock rules rather than a single published statement. One more piece of timing: Monday, September 7, 2026, was an official non-working day in Bulgaria, and Tuesday, September 8, does not appear on the national list of non-working days.
Domestic Rail Links and International Services
For onward journeys, the national railway (BDZ) keeps Sofia–Plovdiv in its 2026 draft timetable, and its booking system confirms direct Sofia–Varna and Sofia–Burgas services within a horizon that covers September 8, 2026.
Internationally, the railway publishes Sofia–Bucharest, and states that the Sofia–Halkalı service operates daily. Both international rail timetable periods—Sofia to Bucharest and Sofia to Halkalı—are scheduled to run through October 12, 2026. On the railway’s own current pages, no timetable was found for a direct Sofia–Thessaloniki or Sofia–Belgrade train valid on September 8, 2026.
Excursions: Getting to Rila Monastery
Rila Monastery is the excursion most people ask about, and reaching it by public transport runs into a conflict published on the monastery’s own website. The monastery’s English web page states that public transport to the monastery has not been restored. In direct contrast, its Greek web page publishes a daily bus departure from Sofia’s Ovcha Kupel bus station at 10:20, returning at 15:00. Neither version publishes a journey duration, so this guide gives none; confirm the departure locally before setting out.
One more thing worth knowing before you change trains in the centre: see our companion guide to the excavated Roman streets beneath the Largo.
Mount Vitosha and the Tuesday Lift Closure
Mount Vitosha is reached on the city bus network. The park’s own site gives bus 123 for the Simeonovo gondola base station and bus 93 for the Dragalevtsi chairlift base station; the lift operator gives bus 66 as the access to the Vitoshko Lale working area.
Visitors planning to use aerial ropeways must note current operational statuses. The Simeonovo gondola is not operating. The Dragalevtsi two-seat chairlift is marked “не работи” (does not operate) on the nature park’s portal. Scheduled weekend operations run on Vitoshko Lale 1 and Vitoshko Lale 2 on Saturdays and Sundays between 09:00 and 16:30, weather permitting. A special notice scheduled Vitoshko Lale 1 and 2 to run on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, September 5, 6 and 7, 2026.
That notice ends the day before we publish. So on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, none of the three lifts above is scheduled to run: the Simeonovo gondola is not operating, the Dragalevtsi chairlift is marked as not operating, and Vitoshko Lale runs at weekends. Plan the day around the bus and your own legs.
Airport Scale, Ground Handling, and Flight Networks
Sofia Airport publishes a destination catalogue. It lists eight points across the United Kingdom and Ireland: Birmingham, Bristol, Dublin, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London Heathrow, London Luton, and London Stansted. Specific carriers map to London airports: British Airways and Bulgaria Air pair with London Heathrow, while Wizz Air pairs with London Luton. The catalogue contains no North American destinations, confirming no direct flights to the United States or Canada. Direct Middle Eastern links include Qatar Airways to Doha, flydubai to Dubai, and Wizz Air to Abu Dhabi.
Three ground operators serve over 80 destinations for 27 airlines. Beyond that the picture thins out: no year-round-operation claim was found on the operator’s current pages, so this guide makes no seasonality promise. Furthermore, whether any airline maintains an operational aircraft base at Sofia in 2026 is unverified. Ryanair published four based aircraft for summer 2025; nothing found here confirms a 2026 figure, and a 2025 number is not a 2026 fact. And the airport’s 2025 passenger total could not be extracted from the aviation authority’s own statistics section, so this guide quotes no traffic figure at all.
Verified Airline Routes and Flight Announcements
To provide reliable data, airline-and-destination pairings are divided into two separate lists: flights confirmed on the live departure board, and routes confirmed through official announcements. No pairing appears in both categories.
The first list records flight movements from the live departure board on September 4, 2026. The extract covers page 4 of 20 of the flight display, so it is a fragment of that day rather than the full schedule. Each line below means one thing and only one thing: that flight was on the board on September 4, 2026. Twenty unique pairs, none repeated:
- Ryanair — Naples.
- Ryanair — Bologna.
- Ryanair — Rome Ciampino.
- Ryanair — Warsaw Modlin.
- Ryanair — Chania.
- Ryanair — Eindhoven.
- Ryanair — London Stansted.
- Bulgaria Air — Athens.
- Bulgaria Air — Frankfurt.
- Bulgaria Air — Brussels.
- Wizz Air — Warsaw Chopin.
- Wizz Air — Paris Beauvais.
- Wizz Air — Alghero.
- Wizz Air — Madrid.
- Turkish Airlines — Istanbul.
- SWISS — Zurich.
- Air Serbia — Belgrade.
- Austrian — Vienna.
- Transavia France — Paris Orly.
- Arkia — Belgrade.
The second list records routes confirmed through carrier announcements, which document that a route was scheduled or launched rather than verifying daily operations. Three route pairings appear:
- Ryanair announced additional flight frequencies on its existing Liverpool–Sofia route for summer 2026.
- Ryanair announced Sofia among four new scheduled routes operating from Kraków for summer 2026.
- Ryanair’s new summer 2026 route between Lamezia Terme and Sofia flew for the first time on March 29, 2026.
No route pairing appears in both lists. Keep the two apart when you plan: a board entry is a flight that flew on a named day, and an announcement is a route that was announced.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which terminal does my flight use at Sofia Airport?
Sofia Airport operates two terminals, but assignments do not follow a budget-versus-legacy split: Ryanair uses Terminal 2, easyJet uses Terminal 1, and Wizz Air uses both terminals. Arkia flight IZ901 appears on the live departure board at Terminal 2, whereas the catalogue lists Arkia at Terminal 1. The airport instructs passengers to check flight details on its website, as assignments update continuously.
How do you get from Sofia airport to the city center?
Sofia Airport connects to central Sofia via Metro Line 4 at Terminal 2 (“Летище София”), with a direct direction to Serdika and weekday intervals of 7 to 14 minutes. Departures toward the airport run 05:08:30 to 23:23:00; departures toward Slivnitsa run 05:21:00 to 23:38:30. The operator publishes no journey time for the ride, so plan by the timetable rather than by a duration. Terminal 1 passengers can take the 24/7 shuttle to Terminal 2 (intervals of 20 to 40 minutes) or board bus Line 84 toward Gen. Gurko Street. A single metro journey is €0.80, and a bank card works at the barrier.
What currency does Bulgaria use?
Bulgaria uses the euro, introduced January 1, 2026. Dual circulation of the Bulgarian lev ended January 31, 2026; from February 1, 2026, the euro is the sole legal tender. The conversion rate is 1.95583 lev per euro. The Bulgarian National Bank exchanges old lev cash free of charge with no time limit. Free exchange at commercial banks and post offices was guaranteed through June 30, 2026, and the terms change after that; credit institutions may not refuse to exchange until December 31, 2026.
Do you need a visa for Bulgaria?
Bulgaria is fully inside Schengen: air and maritime border checks ended March 31, 2024, and land checks ended January 1, 2025. Citizens of the UK, US, and other visa-exempt nations do not need a visa, but days in Bulgaria count against the Schengen limit of 90 days within 180 days. Passports must be valid at least three months beyond planned departure and issued within the previous ten years. EES is operational at external borders, while ETIAS is not in force on September 8, 2026, with Commission implementation projected for late 2026.
