Ukraine has been included in the worldwide program of squash development “Ambassador WSF 2018,” which implies the organization of a whole range of activities aimed at promoting this racket sport in Ukraine. Within the framework of the worldwide squash promotion program, the delegation of the World Squash Federation led by its CEO Andrew Shelley, legendary multiple world champion Rami Ashour (Egypt), and six-time European champion Camille Serme will visit Ukraine.
This year the program “Ambassador WSF 2018” is held in Armenia and Ukraine. Two leading squash players, an international coach and a referee take part in it. The program “Ambassador WSF 2018” will be held in Kyiv in the territory of the Grand Prix club on June 23-24. Within the framework of the project, coaching and referees’ seminars, demonstration matches, thematic conferences, sparring and the training of Ukrainian men’s and women’s national teams with the top world players, the training of children from the children’s squash academy, and a press conference are planned.
According to the report from the Ukrainian Squash Federation, the goal of the program is to raise the level of Ukrainian squash to European and world standards.
“More than 20 million people play squash all over the world. In Ukraine their number amounts to thousands. We have room for improvement, and we really are developing. Squash is appreciated as an entertaining sport and an excellent relaxation for amateur sportsmen. We are grateful to the World Squash Federation for including our country in the program of squash popularization and teamwork,” the program coordinator, Vice President of the Ukrainian Squash Federation Maksim Urakin said.
Squash is a sport with a ball and a racket played indoors. The game is conducted by special rackets on a court surrounded by walls from four sides. In 2003 the Forbes magazine recognized squash as one of the most “healthy sports” both in terms of injury rate and the most energy-consuming sport in the world by the number of calories burned.
Squash courts already operate in Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Uzhgorod, Kherson, Lviv, and Khmelnytsky.
Sponsors and partners of the event:
– Grand Prix sports club,
– Interfax-Ukraine information agency,
– Park Inn hotel,
– MaxEvents company,
– In Vino wine salon,
– Oxy Taxi,
– restaurant O’GOROD,
– Boryspil airport,
– Boryspil Magazine,
– Miriada Fruits juices.
There is a high probability that as early as 2018 a new cargo terminal will be launched at Boryspil International Airport, Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan has said following talks with a large international air cargo operator hold on June 20.
“It is realistic: next year it should be launched,” he said at a meeting at the European Business Association in Kyiv.
The minister explained that there are three options for implementing this project: in one of the terminals of Boryspil airport, on the location of Ukroboronprom or one of private land sites adjacent to the airport.
According to him, the company with which the negotiations were conducted plans to study all these possibilities. Omelyan did not reveal its name. He estimated the amount of investment in the project at $30-100 million depending on the stages of its launch.
The minister said the demand for these services in Ukraine has grown exponentially over the past five years.
“There is actually no cargo terminal at Boryspil. Only Ukrposhta loaded its capacity,” the minister said.
According to him, if two years ago the airport handled one tonne of cargo, now it is 160 tonnes a day.
Over 7 million of non-polluted land in Ukraine remains unused for production of organic products, the press service of the Ukrsadprom association has reported.
The press service said that in 2016, the area of non-polluted farmland in the world was 57.8 million ha, including around 400,000 ha in Ukraine, which is in the 20th position. The share of certified organic area is around 1% of farmland in the country.
The association said that organic planting of fruit, berries and nuts in Ukraine becomes more popular.
“The general pace testifies to the gradual expansion of the areas of perennial plantations: now they occupy 5,000 hectares, with the pome fruits and stone fruits – 2,500 hectares, berries – 630 ha, strawberries – 170 ha, walnuts – 290 ha, hazelnuts – 40 hectares, other nuts – 50 hectares,” the association said.
In addition, according to its information, exports of organic gardening products are developing. In 2017, producers exported organic fruits and berries: frozen blueberries and blueberries, fresh apples, elderberry, birch sap, walnut kernels, sea buckthorn, frozen blackberries, wild rose, strawberries, cranberries, hawthorn, lingonberries and raspberries, and apple juice concentrate. The main consumers are the countries of the European Union.
“Organic products, especially fruit and berries, are in greatest demand in the EU, the United States and Canada, so the growth of organic fruits (apples, berries, nuts, etc.) is promising for Ukraine now,” Ukrsadprom said.
Hungary’s low cost airline Wizz Air carried 425,000 passengers from/to Ukraine in January-May 2018, acting Corporate Relations Head at Wizz Air Sorina Ratz said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
“We offer 1.3 million passenger seats from Kyiv this year, which is a rise of 79%. In general, from Ukraine we offer 1.67 million passenger seats this year,” she said.
Ratz said that in 2018, the airline plans to launch 100 new routes, including 11 from Ukraine.
A first flight to Europe on the Zaporizhia-Barcelona route was serviced by the plane of Yanair from the Zaporizhia international airport, the press service of the Zaporizhia Regional Council has reported.
Deputy Director of Zaporizhia International Airport Oleksiy Dubrevsky said that the Zaporizhia-Barcelona flight is serviced by Boeing 737-400 plane belonged to Yanair. A total of 163 passengers checked in, which means almost the full loading of the plane.
The airport said that this is a charter flight for summer to be serviced each Wednesday.
There is an interest to launch regular Zaporizhia-Barcelona flight this year.
From July 2, 2018, Zaporizhia-Warsaw regular flights will be launched.
The airport said that this year the task to increase flights and passenger flow is being successfully fulfilled: the airport serviced 152,000 passengers in January-May 2018, which is 85% more than a year ago.
SkyUp airline is studying the possibility of involving Ukrainian-made aircraft for domestic flights, the co-founder of the airline Yuriy Alba said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“We held the first round of negotiations under the auspices of Minister of Infrastructure [Volodymyr] Omelyan, and we met with the Antonov’s chief designer regarding the possibility of operating our domestic aircraft on domestic flights. We are now in active correspondence with the design office, collecting data to analyze the technical and economic characteristics of domestic planes. We also want to analyze the material base and training centers that train pilots for the operation of Antonov [aircraft]. We will soon be able to understand how fruitful cooperation with the domestic producer will be,” Alba said.
As he said, now the airline owns two Boeing planes, which the company has received in leasing. In the future SkyUp plans to expand the fleet by 10 aircraft.
“As for the deal with Boeing, we will decide on the financing issue together with the corporation. We are attracting funding from our tourism partners for the start. When we provide the first guaranteed payment, a joint trip will take place with representatives of the corporation to leading U.S. banks that will provide us with grant for obtaining loans from the World Bank,” Alba said.
According to him, the first part of the advance payment has already been made, further payments will be made annually according to the schedule.
“The prepayment was $4 million. It included contracts for the supply of five aircraft in 2023 and five aircraft in 2024. Also this advance payment included the signing of a contract for the leasing of current aircraft that had transferred from Malaysian Airlines and that are now servicing private flights for a tour operator,” the SkyUp co-founder said.
He added that the foreign partners of the company are engaged in financing the newly created airline.
