The area under New Year trees (spruces, pines, firs) of the State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine exceeds 5,000 hectares, Viktor Melnychenko, the director general of state enterprise Forestry Innovation Analytical Center, has said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine. “The New Year campaign has already started – wholesale buyers are starting to buy Christmas trees from about the beginning of December. Prices have not changed much from year to year – the wholesale price is UAH 60-70 per running meter”, he said.
According to Melnychenko, the sellers later pass unused trees to zoos for animal feed, while used ones are processed for fuel.
He also noted that Forestry Innovation Analytical Center has developed an application for Android software – yalynka.info – to verify the legality of a Christmas tree origin. The application can be installed for free from Google Play Market. It allows checking the Christmas tree on the individual number on the label (plastic screed) and the self-adhesive label. The tag and the label deteriorate when removed and, accordingly, cannot be used again.
As reported, state forestry enterprises plan to sell about 500,000 Christmas trees this year.
Initial registration of electric vehicles (new and used) in Ukraine in January-November 2018 almost doubled compared to the same period of 2017, to 4,812 units, the Ukrautoprom association has reported. At the same time, the share of imported used cars, as in the previous year, was 84%. As reported, in the first half of this year, the growth in the electric vehicle market was 50% compared to the same period last year, and in January-October already 89% (the share of used cars on it is 85%).
According to the association, 598 electric vehicles passed primary registration in Ukraine in November, which is 2.4 times more than in the same month of 2017, but 80% of them were imported cars with mileage.
The most popular electric car in the Ukrainian market (344 units) remains Nissan Leaf, BMW i3 cars rank second with the registration of 41 cars, and Tesla Model S ranked third with 34 cars.
Renault Zoe ranked fourth position with 28 vehicles, while the fifth position belonged to Fiat 500e, which was chosen by 24 customers.
Ukrainian airlines in November 2018 serviced 79.4% of flights of the total number of flights serviced at Ukrainian airports within the 15 minute deviation from the timetable, while in October the figure was 85.2%, Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry has reported.
According to the ministry, this happened despite the reduction in the number of flights from 4,540 to 3,790.
The Infrastructure Ministry said that the punctuality of foreign airlines in November compared with October decreased slightly from 84.9% to 83.7%, while the number of flights decreased from 2,720 to 2,510
Of the Ukrainian airlines that made more than 50 flights a month in October-November, Motor Sich remains the most punctual, although last month its figure dropped to 86.2% from 95.6% a month earlier, with the number of flights dropping to 239 from 250.
Windrose is second with a decline from 93.4% to 83.4% and with the number of flights falling from 482 to 356.
Punctuality of Ukraine’s largest airline in the market – Ukraine International Airlines – deteriorated from 86.6% to 80.9%, while the number of flights decreased from 3,161 to 2,681.
The indicators in November for SkyUp, Bravo, Yanair and Azur Air Ukraine were from 70% to 60% (in order of deterioration).
Czech Airlines, Swiss International Airlines and Air Arabia were ranked the top of the November punctuality rating among foreign airlines with the 100% punctuality, although the number of their flights is small – from 15 to 21 per month.
Pegasus Airlines had the best performance among low cost airlines – 96.2% with 105 flights, while Hungarian Wizzair and Irish Ryanair with significant lags turned out to be next in the rating – 81.5% with 406 flights and 79.7% with 222 flights respectively. The figure of the Italian airline Ernest was 76% with 96 flights.
Among other foreign airlines that serviced more than 100 flights from Ukraine in November, Belavia had the best result – 90% with 230 flights. Polish LOT had 86.3% with 314 flights, Turkish Airlines – 79.5% with 263 flights, Lufthansa – 77.6% with 170 flights and Austrian Airlines – 76.4% with 110 flights.