Todor Ivandjikov is the founder of International Aviation Services (IAS), a Sofia-based Continuing Airworthiness Management Organisation (CAMO) that today manages 50 aircraft on behalf of some of the industry's biggest lessors and airlines, from offices reaching Hong Kong to Mexico. Todor's path into aviation began 27 years ago, when Balkan Airlines went bankrupt and he was brought on as a consultant by Morgan Stanley. He went on to found IAS in 2005, building an independent Bulgarian operation that competes for trust against much larger international players, largely without traditional marketing. In 2020, he also founded the Bulgarian Aviation Industry Association (BAIA), now 55 members strong with a seat at the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce, and has become one of the loudest voices pushing for a national aviation strategy. Alongside IAS and BAIA, he has also built out AeroSight, a flight data monitoring business, and several other aviation ventures.
We spoke with Todor about the door that didn't open when he was 19, what it actually takes to build trust with the world's biggest aircraft lessors from Sofia, and why he believes Bulgaria's biggest aviation opportunity is being left on the table.
Key Takeaways
- A closed door redirected an entire career. Reassigned from pilot training to engineering overnight, Todor built a 27-year career in airworthiness management instead.
- Trust in this industry travels by word of mouth. IAS built its client base on reputation and precision, with almost no marketing spend.
- Bulgaria still lacks a long-term aviation strategy. Todor points to Turkish Airlines' growth against Balkan's collapse as proof of what decades of planning can produce.
- Bulgaria's aviation talent pipeline is becoming a real advantage. Sofia Airport is on track to become one of the world's largest centers for aircraft maintenance, and Todor credits the country's engineers and mechanics as among the best in the industry.
- Building BAIA meant learning how the state actually moves money. A direct exchange with the finance minister turned into real COVID-era funding for Bulgarian airlines.
Q: What's the story behind how you chose aviation?
Ivandjikov: I wanted to fly since I was ten, ever since my first flight on an An-24 from Sofia to Gorna Oryahovitsa. I aimed my whole education at pilot training with Balkan. I made the final list, fourth place, and celebrated that night. The next morning, I was told I'd been reassigned to engineering.
I didn't believe it. I told the general straight out I thought he was lying. He offered military pilot training instead. I refused. My father drove me to Sofia that day and told me on the way: enroll as an engineer, you can come back to piloting from there. So I did. That was the first door that closed, and, like I tell young people now, when one door closes, another usually opens into a nicer room.
Q: You started IAS after Balkan went bankrupt. What did it take for a small Bulgarian company to earn the trust of the biggest names in leasing?
Ivandjikov: When Balkan went bankrupt, Morgan Stanley brought me on as a consultant, and I earned my FAA A&P license in Frankfurt. My first project was in Brazil. From there, people started reaching for me directly, and what became International Aviation Services turned into, in practice, a Bulgarian company, even though almost all our early work was outside Bulgaria.
We don't spend much on marketing. One mistake here, a missed part, a bad modification, a day's delay, can cost tens of thousands, sometimes millions. Precision is the whole product. Stay consistent for years, and people talk. I've had lessors in Dublin tell me they know me by name before they know the company.
Q: What's been the hardest part of building that business?
Ivandjikov: Being Bulgarian, honestly. The English, American, and Irish lobbies in this industry are strong, and I've spent 10 to 15 years trying to build a real Bulgarian hub without much institutional support. Competition has intensified too, from Austrian firms, Latin American price-cutting, and Ukrainian professionals entering the market.
There's also a talent retention problem industry-wide. Someone who doesn't stay five years at one company loses depth. And every year brings a new shock: COVID, fuel costs, and now EASA cybersecurity regulations that have cost us tens of thousands of euros to comply with. We've also seen direct server attacks, including from state actors, given how much aircraft data we hold.
Q: You founded BAIA in October 2020, the worst possible moment for aviation. How did that happen?
Ivandjikov: Two airline owners came to me and said, "We're in a massive crisis, and we need a different aviation association." The existing one felt built entirely around Bulgaria Air. They convinced me, gave me a clear mandate, and we moved fast, with about 30-something members from the start.
The early priority was COVID funding. I wrote letters to the Ministries of Transport and Finance with almost no response, until the finance minister at the time told me directly how to get the money. It turned out there was roughly 100 million left in Sofia Airport's state accounts post-privatisation that could be redirected to airlines. It helped, though lobbying meant larger companies benefited more.
Five years on, BAIA includes training centers, the Higher Military School, and the Military Academy, with partnerships including Japan, China, Greece, Romania and Hungary. Our members also helped establish the European drone association JEDA with 21 other countries.
Q: Beyond IAS and BAIA, you've built other businesses too. What connects them?
Ivandjikov: Doing in-house what most of the industry outsources. For example, AeroSight, our flight data monitoring business, reads black box data to assess aircraft and crew performance. It's mandatory under the European regulations, but we treat it as more than a checkbox. We've helped airlines catch pilot errors and aircraft system defects before they became serious.
I've also applied to be the first EASA-certified design organisation in Eastern Europe, letting us propose aircraft modifications ourselves rather than going through Boeing or Airbus. We're moving into producing small aircraft interior parts too, and eventually I want our own maintenance base, so a client's aircraft doesn't have to leave Bulgaria to get serviced. I was also the first in Bulgaria to hold an independent CAMO (Continuous Airworthiness Management Organisation) certificate. Being first is a pattern across everything I've built.
Q: What's a problem in the wider industry that doesn't get enough attention?
Ivandjikov: The talent shortage, both of pilots and mechanics, is a huge problem. Wages are climbing, pushing ticket prices up. The war has also disrupted raw materials for wings and engines, forcing manufacturers like Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney to find substitutes. If you order a new aircraft today, you’ll be waiting three to four years.
Engine reliability surprised me most. Pratt & Whitney's geared turbofan engines are a good example, a known manufacturing defect has forced groundings and route cuts across airlines, including Wizz Air, affecting both A320neo and A220 aircraft. Without strong legal and financial expertise behind you, a company here can fail very quickly.
I was at an aviation event connected to Davos recently, and someone told me flatly: Europe is a black hole for money. Capital is flowing to the US and Asia instead. Vietnam alone has ordered 100 new aircraft this year.
Q: You mentor young people into aviation. Why does that matter to you?
Ivandjikov: I don't see the same dedication in young people that I had. Life now moves too fast for people to focus on one thing long enough to fall in love with it. I mentor through the ABLE Mentor program, and over the past two years I, Nikolay Kalaydjiev and some Drone experts have visited around 30 schools to talk about aviation as a career.
Once someone experiences flight in person, not through a screen, they get hooked almost immediately. This year, through a cluster of eight aviation associations I now chair, we gave about 140 kids across the country a short first flight. Some told me it was the happiest day of their lives which gave me the belief that this is the right path.
It matters personally, too. My daughter has been working with me for the last 10 years, and when I'm unreachable, she's the one holding everything together.
Q: If you had full authority to fix one thing about Bulgarian aviation, what would it be?
Ivandjikov: We don't have a real long-term strategy. In 1997, Balkan had 52 aircraft, Turkish Airlines had 27. Look at where each of them is now. That's what 20 to 30 years of deliberate strategy produces.
Romania directs roughly 20-something million euros a year into aviation by writing the word "aviation" explicitly into its EU recovery-fund allocations. In Bulgaria, that word doesn't appear anywhere. The money goes to rail instead, and we've all seen the state of that infrastructure.
Even past decisions show the lack of planning. If Sofia Airport's location had been chosen strategically, it would sit somewhere better connected to rail. Qatar Airways and several Italian carriers have pulled out recently, and Air France still doesn't fly here.
If I had that authority, here's where I'd start:
- Restore the airports and bring back aviation schools at each one.
- Revive sport and acrobatic flying.
- Build real programs that get young people involved in both manned and unmanned aviation.
- Make financing easier to access for airlines and aviation startups.
- Push for real Bulgarian manufacturing in this sector.
- Start a standing board of industry people revisiting the strategy every few months, instead of a document written once in 2017 and never touched again.
Q: What's the most encouraging thing happening in Bulgarian aviation right now?
Ivandjikov: Sofia Airport is becoming a genuine center for aircraft maintenance, on track to be the eighth largest point globally for MRO lines. The global fleet is expected to roughly double by the early 2040s, and Europe has a real shortage of skilled technical labor, so this is a major opportunity for Bulgaria, which already produces excellent engineers and mechanics.
We're also seeing a strong domestic drone sector emerge, building some of the best gyrocopters and drone components in the world. That's the kind of momentum I'd want more people to invest in.
