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internationally. Ukraine’s airline hub was a little over 415,000 passengers short of taking over Paris-Orly Airport – France’s second-largest airport – ranked the 13th busiest in Europe, and about 465,000 passengers short from the 12th ranked Heathrow Airport in London. The latest figures published by the Airport Council International (ACI) also indicate that Istanbul Airport was once again the busiest airport in Europe with passenger traffic surpassing 7.5mn during the January-April period. Moscow Domodedovo Airport ranked second serving 6.3mn passengers and another Russian airport, Sheremetyevo International Airport, took third with 6.2mn passengers.
The 27-nation EU Council approved on June 29 an open skies airline agreement with Ukraine. Scheduled to be signed this fall, the deal will “promote trade, tourism, investment and economic and social development,” the Council said. The accord, “neighborhood aviation agreement”, will require Ukraine to “adopt EU aviation standards and implement EU aviation rules,” the Council added. The agreement will be effective from this summer.
Charter passenger traffic doubled at Kyiv Boryspil for the first five months of this year, compared to January-May period last year, reports the Center for Transportation Strategies. The nearly 2.5 million-passenger flow for the period was split nearly evenly between charter and regular travelers. Passengers on regular flights were down by one third and transfer passengers were down by 80%. Overall, traffic was down by only 1% compared to the same five-month period last year.
● Trains
This year, 13 Chinese container trains have arrived in Ukraine, and 67 Chinese trains have moved in transit across Ukraine. Ukrzaliznytsia and freight forwarding companies are working to fill trains returning to China with exports from Ukraine. In the 10 years since the first Chinese freight train traveled to Europe, 40,000 trains have made this trip, carrying goods worth more than $200bn, reports Rail.insider.
Moving a bumper harvest to the sea ports will not be a problem, says Gorbachov. Ukraine now has 28,000 rail hopper cars, almost triple the 10,000 of three years ago. “We have no more deficit of these hoppers, and we can move grain easily to the ports,” he said. “Now we can load without any problem 70 to 80mn tons of grain per year.” Transport modes to the ports are: rail – 65%; road – 25%; and river – 10%.
Ukzaliznytsia wants the government to spend $1.5bn over the next three years to renew cars for passenger trains, UZ CEO Ivan Yuryk tells the railroad’s press office. Referring to UZ’s plan to buy 670 passenger cars, 43 suburban electric trains and five high-speed InterCity trains, he says: “Supporting the railway, in particular the unprofitable passenger routes, at the expense of the State Budget is a worldwide practice that enables the railway to develop and provide quality passenger transportation services.”
9.1.4 Construction & Real estate sector news
16 business centers will open in Kyiv, with a total area of 376,000 square meters by the end of next year, Radomyr Tsurkan, managing partner of CBRE Ukraine, predicted last week in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine. “The
58 UKRAINE Country Report July 2021 www.intellinews.com