Page 64 - UKRRptFeb19

committee of the European Investment Bank’s project "Urban Public Transport of Ukraine" was held under the chairmanship of Deputy Infrastructure Minister for European Integration Viktor Dovhan. On completion of the meeting it was decided to endorse the subprojects on the development of urban public transport to the tune of €24.36mn.
● Planes
Ukraine recorded 20mn air passengers in 2018, 43% above 2017 levels
and one third higher than the historical record of 15mn in 2013. Alexander Kunitsky writes in “Ukraine Rises on the Wing,” a 2,500-word analysis of the aviation boom for UNIAN: “Ukrainian airports showed record passenger traffic. The emergence of new low-cost airlines lowered the prices of air tickets, and the government seriously aimed at the revival of regional airports.” Fueling ‘a price war’ he writes, was “the reduction in ticket prices and the emergence of new airlines in the domestic market, which increased the intensity of the struggle for passengers.”
Kyiv’s Boryspil Airport has handled 1mn passengers a month in 2018, up 19% over last year’s levels . Through November, Ukraine’s largest airport handled 11.7mn passengers. In November, traffic was up by one third, year over year, to 994,200. So far this year, 23% of the passengers take charter flights, and 27% are in transit, never leaving the airport.
Kyiv’s Boryspil airport attracted 10 new airlines, 25 new destinations, and 62 more weekly flights in 2018 , the airport reports on its website. Strengthening Boryspil’s role as an international hub, the number of transfer passengers increased by 17%. Overall, the airport increased its passenger flow by 19.4%, to 12.6mn.
Passenger traffic at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv International Airport was up by half (51.9%) to 2.812mn people in 2018 as the travel business in Ukraine booms, the airport’s press service reported on January 7. "In 2018, Kyiv International Airport provided air services to 2.812mn passengers, which is 51.9% more compared to 2017," the report says. Of the total 2.727mn passengers were carried on international routes, with the remaining 84,800 on domestic routes. A total of 30,248 flights were operated in 2018, which is 30.1% more than in 2017. The most popular international directions in 2018 were Minsk (Belarus), Warsaw (Poland), Sharm el-Sheik (Egypt), Dubai (UAE), Antalya (Tukey), Ankara (Turkey), and Rome (Italy). Among domestic flights, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia and Lviv were the most popular directions.
Boryspil, the nation’s busiest airport, increased traffic by 19%, to 12.6mn passengers . Aiming to add another 1.5mn passengers this year, Boryspil plans to reopen this spring Terminal F for passengers, probably for Ryanair. Europe’s largest airline, Ryanair joined nine other new airlines flying to Boryspil in 2018: Brussels Airlines, Iraqi Airways, MyWay Airlines, Ellinair, Air Malta, Sky Up, SWISS, Flydubai, and Air Moldova.
Discount airlines plan to launch 25 new flights from Ukraine to the EU this year. But fine tuning is starting. On Monday, Italian-Albanian airline Ernest stops flights from Lviv to Venice and Milan Malpensa. It will also reduce -- to two times a week -- the frequencies of flights from Lviv to Naples, Rome and Milan Bergamo. On Feb. 9, Wizz Air drops its Kharkiv-London Luton flight, three months after it started.
64 UKRAINE Country Report February 2019 www.intellinews.com