Page 66 - UKRRptOct20

9.1.3​ Transport sector news
Inside Ukraine, transport companies carried 41% fewer passengers through August, compared to the first eight months of 2019, ​reports the State Statistics Service. The drops were across the board: buses – 41%; metro systems – 46%; rail – 56.5%; and airlines – 66%. Overall, about 1.7bn trips were made.
● Planes
About $175mn for the creation next year of a national airline is included in a budget bill submitted by Rada members of the majority Servant of the People party​. Last spring, President Zelenskiy announced a plan to create a national air carrier based on a fleet of regional jets produced by Antonov’s factory in Kyiv. The carrier would develop domestic air travel and air links with Moldova, Belarus and Georgia – three countries with experience in servicing Antonov passenger planes.
Presently, Ukraine has 53 operating AN-26 planes, the model that crashed on September 25 ​night near Kharkiv, killing 26 of the 27 Air Force personnel aboard. Aircraft ages range from 35 to 48 years, Antonov reports on the company Facebook page. Of these turboprop transports, 24 are used for civil aviation, presumably air cargo companies, and 29 for government work, largely the Ukrainian Air Force. Antonov notes that it now is producing the AN-178. This short-range, medium-airlift military transport jet is designed to replace the AN-26, which was developed in the late 1960s.
Traffic at Boryspil was down 60% y/y in August, to 656,029 passengers,
reports the centre for Transportation Strategies. Traffic on charter flights was down by only 9%, indicating that Kyiv residents cling to their package tours to Egypt and Turkey. By contrast, traffic on regular flights – largely to the EU and North America – was down by 78%. Traffic is expected to be even worse in September because the government has closed Ukraine to most foreign visitors for the month.
Just in time for the October elections, work starts on September 14 on the 7-year-old project to build a $200mn new airport for Dnipro​. An agreement has been signed to start clearing existing airport equipment and to start a $430,000 design project. Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Krikliy says a tender will be held shortly to build a new 3,200-meter runway, 13% longer than the existing one. This fall, Alexander Yaroslavsky says his DCH Group will start building a new terminal capable of handling 1,000 passengers an hour. Based in Kharkiv, Yaroslavsky built the highly acclaimed $107mn airport terminal for Kharkiv. With 1mn inhabitants, Dnipro is Ukraine’s 4th largest city. But last year, its airport was Ukraine’s 7th busiest. In 2019, traffic climbed 13% to 339,000 – the level of 2015. Because of Dnipro’s poor runway and Soviet-era terminal, the airport is shunned by airlines. The exceptions are UIA and Windrose, both controlled by Dnipro industrialist Igor Kolomoisky. In contrast, in Kharkiv, a city of 1.4mn people, 11 airlines carried a total of 1,340,000 passengers last year -- almost four times the level of 2015.
● Trains
Rail freight volumes were up 10.3% in August over the level of August
66​ UKRAINE Country Report​ October 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com