State-owned enterprise (SOE) Boryspil International Airport plans to start building a cargo terminal in 2019 even if no investor is found, Director Pavlo Riabikin said at the Global Outlook 2018 conference organized by the European Business Association (EBA) in Kyivy. According to him, the existing cargo infrastructure of the Boryspil airport was formed in the late 1960s – early 1970s and it was designed to handle about 40 tonnes of cargo per day. “Today we process 110-120 tonnes of cargo a day, which is very problematic with the existing infrastructure,” Riabikin said.
According to him, in the past four years there has been a lot of talk about attracting investors and creating an investment project for the construction of a cargo terminal at the airport, but due to the fact that the state has few mechanisms for attracting investors to infrastructure projects, this has not been realized.
“Next year, if the ministry [the Infrastructure Ministry] fails to attract an investor, we plan to build a new cargo terminal based on existing capacities, but we will implement it using own forces. To be honest, the volumes of investment that we need in coming years make the implementation of the cargo terminal very difficult,” the head of the enterprise said.
Riabikin said that the project for the construction of the cargo terminal is not a profile for the airport, since the company is oriented, first of all, to passenger transportation.
“I think we are able to implement it [the construction of the cargo terminal] during a year and a half. The only question is whether we have the funds or the opportunity to attract them,” Riabikin said.
