Page 65 - UKRRptSept21

Equipped with Mercedes engines and transmissions the 36-seat are to be built for sale in Ukraine and for export. In a larger joint venture with European manufacturer, ZAZ is assembling 10,000 Arkana coupe-crossovers for Renault.
9.1.3 Transport sector news
● Planes
Kyiv Boryspil airport handled almost 1.2mn passengers in July – 72% of the pre-pandemic level of July, 2019. Kharkiv airport handled 148,000 passengers in July – 13% more than in July, 2019. International traffic was 24% higher than in July, 2019. Lviv airport handled 251,000 passengers in July -- 3% more than in July, 2019. Overall, UkSATSE, the nation’s air traffic control system, handled 26,952 flights in Ukraine’s airspace in July -- 70% of the volume of July, 2019.
Pushing a plan to create a national airline for Ukraine, President Zelenskiy met on August 18 in Kyiv with Marc Rochet, CEO of Aerogestion, a Paris-based airline consultancy. Noting the modernization of regional airports, Zelenskiy said a regional airline would boost domestic tourism. Two months ago, Kirylo Tymoshenko, deputy presidential chief of staff, said the airline would be based on Antonov An-148, a regional jet capable of seating 68-85 passengers. For Zelenskiy to meet his self-imposed deadline to create a national airline by the end of this year, he would have to buy an existing airline. A leading candidate would be Ihor Kolomoisky’s Windrose, which flies to 12 Ukrainian cities.
In a big bet on international tourism for Ukraine’s Carpathians, the region’s future airport is designed to handle 1.4 million passengers a year, almost 4,000 a day. To handle long range jets, the airstrip will be 2.8 km long, with the possibility of extending to 3.2 km. By contrast, Lviv airport, the other major airport of Western Ukraine has a 3.3 km strip. Located 10 km south of Mukachevo, Zakarpattia’s second largest city, the new airport is being designed by Olga Krasnoludskaya, chief engineer, and Oleg Khanenko, chief architect, reports the Center for Transportation Strategies.
● Trains
Rail cargo between Ukraine and Poland increased by 22% y/y during the first half of this year, reports Ukrzaliznytsia. Of the 5.6mn tons, 73% are exports, largely iron and manganese ore. Container traffic increased by 77% over the same period, to 27,757 containers. “Poland is a long-standing and proven strategic partner of Ukraine,” Ivan Yuryk, UZ’s acting CEO, said on a visit to Poland last week. “Together, we are doing everything possible to develop rail transport and the economies of our states.”
Ukrzaliznytsia has won a ruling to reduce debt Russian Sberbank by $15.6mn. The Eastern Commercial Court of Appeal in Kharkiv has agreed to reduce one of the state-owned company’s debts to Russian bank Sberbank from $56.1mn to $40.55mn. Ukrzaliznytsia accrued this from its former its subsidiary enterprise Donetsk Railway which had accumulated large debts from major Russian banks including Sberbank, VTB, and others before Russia’s aggression in the eastern Donbas region in 2014. Ukrzaliznytsia
65 UKRAINE Country Report September 2021 www.intellinews.com