Europe`s largest low-cost airline may enter Ukraine

Monday, May 16, 2016 - 15:41 (EEST) Section: Latest news

Europe`s largest low-cost carrier Ryanair is considering the possibility of entering the Ukrainian air transportation market and is in talks with Lviv`s authorities regarding the matter, according to Forbes Ukraine.
”We are in dialogue with officials from Lviv, but I do not think we will discuss flights to Odesa. Ukraine now can only be considered as an addition to our major destinations,” Forbes Ukraine quoted Ryanair`s Chief Commercial Officer David O`Brien as saying.
O`Brien explains his company`s business model is that each additional flight should not increase company`s costs calculated per passenger, so Ryanair expects to see the return on investment. O`Brien says there is a demand in Ukraine for flights to many countries. At this, he noted that popular destinations were in the east and the north, where Ryanair did not have legal permits to fly, nor was able practically to perform those flights.
According to O`Brien, the company focuses on such destinations as Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, having many popular destinations much closer than Ukraine.
O`Brien pointed to the importance of having the Open Skies agreements not only in Lviv and Odesa, but also in Kyiv. The purpose of the Open Skies is to boost passenger flows at the airports, according to O`Brien.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine`s Infrastructure Ministry has been developing a program to promote the appearance of low cost airlines on the Ukrainian market due to bonuses or other preferences to the air carriers.
Earlier, Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said he expects that the Open Skies agreement between Ukraine and the European Union may be signed in July 2016.
The ministry`s heads had repeatedly declared its plans to sign the agreement by the end of 2015. According to the ministry, the signing of this agreement is impossible until the UK and Spain solve the dispute over Gibraltar, and Ukraine has no right to make any unilateral decisions in this regard. Talks related to the determination of the area have been held between the EU and Ukraine since June 2014. The rest of the agreement was initialed back in 2013.
The Infrastructure Ministry unilaterally introduced the Open Skies regime at the Lviv airport on April 2, 2015. The Open Skies rules have also been operating at the Odesa airport since June 30, 2015.