15 February 2010 | Bulgaria’s main gateway to the world, the Vrazhdebna Airport in Sofia, was recently ranked in the world’s top 10 ugliest airports by the Travel and Leisure Magazine.

The Sofia Airport, at 10th position, was the only Balkan entry in the media’s ranking, which was topped by John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, Charles de Gaulle in Paris and Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow.

The media described Sofia’s Airport as “a combination of a much-renovated and expanded 1937-era Terminal 1 [in the picture below] and a new Terminal 2, which opened in 2006 [in the picture above]. The old terminal is, as you’d expect, an unpleasant amalgam of styles and additions. The new one should have been an improvement—with many of the characteristics of today’s best airports, like lots of glass and high ceilings—yet it wound up looking like one of those impressively shiny but irredeemably wrongheaded post-Communist showplaces.”



In trying to explain its lack of aesthetic appeal, the magazine pointed to “the conical columns that recall a row of Apollo space capsules; or the strange main entrance, more suited to a second-string corporate headquarters than an airport,” to conclude that one gets “the sense that the builders had the right kit of parts but failed to read the assembly instructions.”

As if that weren’t enough, the publication missed to point to the meaning of the airport’s name. Called after the erstwhile village near which its first building was constructed in the 1930s, the airport’s name is derived from the word ‘vrazhdeben,’ meaning hostile - possibly the least welcoming name for Bulgaria’s main and most prestigious point of entry.

Each airport in the ranking, however, ended with a short upside. For Vrazhdebna, it was the fact that a design competition was held for the airport’s sleek new control tower, with construction set to begin this year.

Interestingly, the publication’s list, created with help from an unscientific survey of design-savvy frequent fliers, pointed to the fact that “the worst offenders are ugly by choice rather than necessity: certain airports, like those in Bali and Sofia, Bulgaria, seem to have gone out of their way to acquire the uncanny placelessness that typifies the modern airport.” In addition, it seemed that the airports people hated most passionately were those they used most frequently, adding to that an embarrassment that “this is how others first encounter their beloved cities.”

Although Sofia was the only Balkan entry in the list, the airport in Kosovo’s capital was also mentioned. But since it “seemed wrong [for the publication] to include airports in active or recent war zones,” it “left out Baghdad and cut some slack for the homely little terminal in Pristina.” Third World airports were also left alone, both out of a concern for fairness and because “for some travelers, the ugliness of underdeveloped airports is a reassuring mark of authenticity.”

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