BH Air - Balkan Holidays Air (8H, Sofia) is planning to start its first scheduled flights to the United States in spring next year using its sole widebody aircraft, an A330-200, LZ-AWA (cn 255). In an interview with the 24 Chasa newspaper, airline managing director Ianko Ivanov said initial services would include 4x weekly flights from Sofia to New York JFK and Chicago O'Hare though this is dependent on all requisite permits being secured. The launch would mark the first time a Bulgarian scheduled carrier has served the United States since the collapse of Balkan Bulgarian Airlines (Sofia) in 2002.

BH Air is also considering partnering Greek operator, Skygreece Airlines (Athens), with plans to tap into demand for travel to the US in the Romanian, Serbian, Macedonian, Greek and Albanian markets.

While Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport) is the only carrier from the region serving the United States at present, competition could come from Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International) subsidiary, Air Serbia (JU, Belgrade), which has set a late 2015/early 2016 launch date for its own maiden North American services.