Q: Mr. Zimmer, could you give our readers a brief historical background of Lufthansa since you established your offices here in Sofia?
A: Lufthansa started operations in 1970, i.e. twenty-eight years ago. At that time we had bilateral relations with Balkan Airlines on the former airline called Taxo. Our operation was based on a bilateral agreement. At the time we did not have any agreement between Bulgaria and Germany. We started our operation with one flight a week, two flights a week via Belgrade and we increased the number and the frequency of the flights constantly. And nowadays we have 14 flights a week between Bulgaria and Germany, i.e. daily flights Munich – Sofia –Munich and Frankfurt – Sofia – Frankfurt. We had no representation office for a long time that means that we were not allowed to sell any tickets just for representation and Balkan decided who is flying with which airline. In 1993, a traffic agreement between Bulgaria and Germany was signed and since then we are allowed to sell their tickets on our own, or Balkan and Hemus or other Bulgarian carriers are in Germany and as the German carriers here, but we are the only German carrier here. I mentioned two flights a day, that means we are the strongest carrier besides the national carrier Balkan Airlines.
Q: What are the main challenges that you are facing today here in Bulgaria?
A: Very often we have problems with the way administration runs, democracy, laws. We are trying to make all our business according to the laws because we do not want to make anything wrong. This is sometimes very hard because nobody knows what is going on, what is the right thing, how to approach ministries, waiting for decisions, waiting for replies ; waiting for an acknowledgement of our requests. These are the main problems. The market is OK, I think at the moment, we had several difficult years. I have been here since 1994. Business developed right despite all the ups and downs of the economic and political development in Bulgaria, but we are looking forward to having a good business this year. We now feel a little stabilisation since the currency board was established last year and it is a little bit more quiet. Coming back to your question about the challenges here, bureaucracy is one thing, another one is educating our staff, educating travel agencies in the sense of changing their mind into service-oriented business, customer-oriented. This is our main challenge : to get their support in the way of training, in the way of pushing them, of convincing them that the right way is to sell a ticket with a smile. Another challenge which affects us is the infrastructure of the airport. Nothing has been changed although since my arrival hare the airport has been trying to reconstruct, to renovate but so far nothing has been done. Our business is increasing,i. e. frequency and the number of passengers are increasing. All the airlines have a lot of passengers right now and the whole infrastrusture of Sofia Airport is not prepared to deal with this increase of 23% (compared to June of last year). We, my colleagues from Frankfurt and I, have been trying to convince the administration of Sofia Airport to make it easier for us as far as infrastructure and ground service is concerned, but nothing has been done so far.
Q: What is your opinion regarding the tourist sector?
A: Speaking about tourism, we should consider
the outgoing and the incoming tourist flow. I am
not interested in the incoming tourism, because
I have to find my customers here. The incoming tourism
is all right, it is increasing. There are beautiful
landscapes here, mountains for skiing, walking areas,
hunting places, lakes, old villages and the coastline.
The people in the countryside are different from
those in Sofia, they are friendlier, more service-oriented.
As far as I know, the incoming figures are OK for
Bulgaria. Outgoing tourism is a little bit different
because the purchase power is not very high here
and not sufficient to create catalogues for selling
them to the Carribean Sea or whatever. Of course
there are people that can afford it, but the common
people cannot afford such a holiday. We are at the
very first step here and it is to create something
together with the travel agencies in order to promote
this option. Forty per cent of the flights are business
and another 40% are people who visit their relatives
all over the world, mostly in the States, and 20%
tourists, city tourism, package tourism, etc. So
it’s just in the beginning but I’m looking
forward to having a good business, maybe in five
years when this middle class will be established
here. |
Q: How do you differentiate from your competitors her on the Bulgarian market? What are your strengths and weaknesses?
A: Well, Balkan is trying to establish these shuttle flights, Sofia – Saigon, Sofia – Palma de Mayorca, etc. Since it has to very cheap to attract customers, that is not a product that is really easy to handle. Especially for Balkan . We have a lot of advantages because for the people it is a kind of image to fly with Lufthansa, although it is more expensive. That means Balkan is trying it, but the people would like to travel with other airlines but they cannot afford it. I think the prices are a challenge all airlines have here, as well as creating such a product and preparing it right on time to be ready when the middle classes will be here.
Q: How do you see the future of the market here?
A: I am absolutely sure that the market in Bulgaria is increasing.
Q: How do you foresee the evolution of Lufthansa?
A: We were the first trying to have these daily flights and now we have two daily flights, i.e. we used the past to establish these flights. Honestly speaking last year was very crucial, because the CO factor was low and the purchase power too. We did not have a good year last year. And nowadays, if you see the high demand on other routes, I am very happy that we have reached this CO factor of 70-75%. That is why I am really optimistic and maybe one day we will open another sector, maybe between Westvalia and here or between Berlin and Sofia.
Q: And what about regarding Bulgaria?
A: As far as I know only 25% of the companies have been privatised so far and there is the target to privatise another 50-60% by the end of 1998. Having in mind that our business and the whole business in Bulgaria is at the very beginning, if I foresee a privatisation of 50% of all the companies here, I think that it can only get up. Things cannot get down anymore. I am not a politician but I believe that the government has at least the mood to continue. It needs time. I am looking forward to seeing a better future for Bulgaria. No laws have been established, there has been no basis but at least the government is trying to avoid mistakes. They are not taking decisions because they think that if you are not taking decisions you are not making mistakes. But what I am always telling my staff is : take a decision, even if it is the wrong one, learn from it and go on. But here nobody takes decisions because they are afraid that they can be blamed later on.
Q: What is your biggest satisfaction as a representative here for Lufthansa?
A: In my position I am happy with our success in the past years and with the relation between Germany and Bulgaria. I am pleased that the people like us, this is really an advantage because they welcome you with open arms when you are from Germany. Lufthansa is a brand name here, i.e. I have to take a personal responsibility. I like the Bulgarian people and I am very open to them. So they like me and they like Lufthansa and we are like a big family. It creates a lot of problems as well. They are always mixing business with private life and you have to do favours.
Q : As a final issue, what would be your final message to our readers?
A : I would like to encourage your readers to have
confidence in this country because most people abroad
have negative ideas about Bulgaria. My message will
be that there are possibilities here for new business
activities, for finding new challenges, for combining
all this with the open attitude of the people here.
Here is the place to combine business with pleasure. |
BULGARIA, 
