Ukraine is actively working to resume air travel: President's Office names cities

Ukraine is making significant efforts to resume flights from the cities of Kyiv and Lviv.

Source: Rostyslav Shurma, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, at a panel discussion at Ukraine House in Davos on 18 January, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine

Quote: "I can say that we are working intensively on resuming air travel in Ukraine… We will definitely do everything possible to make it happen."

Details: Shurma added that reliable logistics and transportation, especially air links, are fundamentally important elements of a country’s business and investment activity.

"If investors and businesspeople can’t get to the places they need to quickly and comfortably, they won’t come at all and won’t do anything," the deputy head of the President’s Office stated.

Asked whether the Ukrainian authorities are indeed considering opening the airports in Kyiv (Boryspil International Airport) and Lviv, he said that both airports are being considered, but the main focus is on Boryspil.

Regarding the possibility of flights resuming in the summer, Shurma said he was not ready to provide a specific timeframe.

"We have an internal roadmap and a schedule. You’re right, but I don’t want to provide any specific deadlines… If only it was up to us, perhaps I would be ready to make a public commitment, but I think that the share of our internal effort here is 20% at most," Shurma said.

Shurma added that the possibility of resuming flights in Ukraine depends on the decisions of its international partners, independent regulators and insurance companies.

In addition, the success of this decision will also depend on Ukraine’s capability to ensure the physical safety of flights.

"Our team and the military are working closely with their Israeli counterparts to study their experience. We are absolutely sure we can do it," Shurma stressed.

Another important factor, he said, is obtaining the approval of the European regulator IATA and seeking reliable insurance mechanisms so that lessors can provide aircraft without any concerns.

"And here we have the same task again: to create suitable risk management tools so that airlines can fly to Kyiv [airport], which we plan to open," Shurma summed up.

Background:

One of Ukraine’s civilian airports is likely to open even before the war is over. Andrii Yermak, Head of the President’s Office of Ukraine, announced this in November in a speech at the Hudson Institute during his trip to the US.

Yermak did not disclose the airport or the specific deadline for its opening.

According to Ukrainska Pravda sources, the city in question is in the west of Ukraine, and there are plans to open the airport before the end of the war.

Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa and Uzhhorod had previously been named as cities where airports might potentially be opened.

At the same time, Boryspil International Airport has stated that it will not be ready to start receiving planes until at least a month after the war is over.

In the middle of 2023, Irish airline Ryanair reported that it has not ruled out resuming a small number of flights to Ukraine subject to successful negotiations about the partial opening of the airspace.

Ukraine’s SkyUp Airlines has also expressed its readiness to be one of the first companies to resume flights from Ukraine as soon as it is permitted.

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