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other’s traffic and neither prospered.
Starting with the May 1 holidays, air travel further decentralizes when SkyUp, Ukraine’s new discount airline, starts charter service to Antalya, Turkey from seven regional airports: Chernivtsi, Kherson, Kriviy Rih, Mykolayiv, Poltava, Vinnytsia and Zaporizhia. Last year, Turkey hosted 1.35mn Ukrainian tourists, up 13% over 2017.
Lviv plans to increase air passenger traffic by 38% this year, to 2.2mn people, airport director Tatiana Romanovskaya tells reporters in Kyiv. After boosting traffic by 48% last year, Romanovskaya says she now is negotiating new flights with Qatar Airways, UIA, an Asian airline and a European discount airline. By June, Ukraine’s busiest regional airport will have flights to 33 cities, including three new ones: Wizz Air to Copenhagen on March 3; airBaltic to Riga on April 1 and SkyUp to Odesa on June 2. The airport is undergoing a $10mn upgrade this year.
This autumn, Kyiv region gains a cargo airport with the opening of international passport and customs controls at Bila Tserkva Airport , Infrastructure Minister Volodomyr Omelyan announced Monday. Belotserkovsky Cargo Aviation Complex, a new municipal enterprise, plans to handle cargo at the airport, one hour by truck from Kyiv’s circle highway. The airport’s new international status also will allow expansion of its existing jet maintenance and repair business. After Kyiv’s Boryspil was unable suspended air cargo deliveries during the Christmas period, Omelyan decided to fast track the opening of Bila Tserkva and to push Boryspil to start construction this spring on a new air cargo terminal.
● Trains
In December, Leo Express, a private Czech rail carrier, plans to launch a Prague-Krakow-Przemysl-Lviv train, according to Rynek Kolejowy, a Polish news site. Trains would run four times a day on the seven hour route. Asked about the train, Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan tells the UBN: “We are ready to accept it.” Separately, Czech Airlines plans to restore on May 30 its direct flights between Prague and Odesa.
Container rail cargo increased by 13% last year, to 334,963 units . After Ukrzaliznytsya started container trains from Odesa last year, Yevgen Kravtsov, chairman of the state railroad, says: “The container transportation market in Ukraine has tremendous opportunities, and our primary task is to create new services for our clients and partners to realize these opportunities.” Each container on a rail car means one less truck trip on the roads.
Russian Railways is asking Russia’s government to temporarily lift a ban on the import of locomotives engines and generators from Ukraine, reports Belprauda, a Belarussian news site. The railroad asked Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry exemption from Moscow’s Dec. 29 ban on the Ukrainian-made parts until Russian manufacturers learn how to make their own. Separately, Russian rail car manufacturers, barred from buying Ukrainian wheels, are turning to two Chinese companies to supply 400,000 wheels through 2022, reports Kyiv’s centre for Transportation Strategies.
● Ships
58 UKRAINE Country Report March 2019 www.intellinews.com