Minister of Transport Petar Mutafchiev signed the contract for the 35-year concession to develop the commercial airports in the Black Sea cities of Varna and Burgas. The concession's holders are Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide (Germany) and BM Star (Bulgaria). According to minister Mutafchiev, the concession contract seeks to draw on experience of concessionaires to transform the two airports from seasonal into all-year operational ones. The financial director of Fraport, Stefan Schulte announced that in total 1,500 new jobs are expected to be created in both towns and in mid-term period the expectations were even higher. The bigger investment is planned for the airport in Burgas totalling €10 million in 2007. No jobs will be threatened, but the new management will take some restructuring measures. The new capacity of Burgas airport will be 3.5 million passengers per year, which means that it will be two-times bigger than at present. The new terminal should be ready in two years and should start operating in 2009. Minister Mutafchiev pronounced that the concession was extremely important for the development of Bulgarian airport infrastructure.