The keenly awaited new terminal at Sofia Airport was officially inaugurated on Wednesday, a year-and-a-half behind schedule and despite ongoing construction work.

Air Malta will be one of the first airlines to use this terminal.

Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev and Transport Minister Petar Mutafchiev led the opening ceremony, just a few days ahead of Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union.

The new terminal is intended to handle about 2.6 million people a year. It can take up to 2,000 passengers in the rush hours and boasts a yearly cargo capacity of 26,000 tons.

The first to land at Terminal 2 was a flight from Brussels.

All the facilities in the new terminal are fully operational, said the airport’s head Plamen Stanchev. “Everything necessary for the functioning of an airport building is one hundred per cent ready and in order”, he said.

The state construction inspectorate has issued permits for the new terminal’s main building, car park and access roads, but these are missing for other parts of the new facility, including the new runways. The whole modernised complex will be put into operation at the end of January.

The net cost of the new terminal stands at around e110 million.

Flag carrier Bulgaria Air, together with Hemus Air, Air Malta and Romania’s Tarom, were the first to take off from the new passenger terminal on Thursday. The old terminal will be used only for low-cost airlines and charter flights.