Sofia is the center of all the air operations. International routes stop at the capitals of the six other Warsaw Pact countries and at sixteen other cities in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The 1973 scheduled flights also connected Sofia with eleven other cities within Bulgaria, most of them on a daily basis.
Percentages of total cargo and passenger traffic carried by air are insignificant, and the rates of increase in the utilization of air transportation have been erratic. Air cargo shipments, for example, increased by a factor of seven between 1960 and 1967 but increased little the following year and decreased for the remainder of the decade.
In 1878 Bulgaria emerged from Turkish rule as a homogeneous, egalitarian peasant society centered in the family and the community. Through the introduction of foreign economic and social ideas and institutions, the society gradually changed during the period between the two world wars. At the time of World War II Bulgaria actually had two social systems: the traditional peasant society, changing but still focused on the family and the community, and a growing urban society that focused on the economy and the state. When the Communists took power in 1944, they set out to destroy the old social order and replace it with one that would reflect communist ideology. The resulting changes have been far reaching and basic. The traditional economic and value base has been destroyed by the elimination of private property. Social distinctions were introduced and magnified where none or few existed. Traditional institutions, such as the church and the family, were weakened; and new institutions, such as mass organizations, were introduced to take their place. Many segments of the population benefited materially from changes that opened new opportunities for education and social advancement; however, the price paid for these benefits was the loss of such important motivating forces as freedom of choice, independence of action, and the right to own income-producing property.
By the early 1970s the rate of change was slowing down, and the society was settling into a discernible pattern. Some aspects of the old social order seem to have survived, providing a continuity between the old and the new. The changes that continue to affect the society are more the result of economic growth than of social engineering.