Ireland’s Ryanair, Europe’s largest budget airline, will offer 1 million or 20% of tickets priced below EUR20 after resuming flights from/to Ukraine, the airline’s chief executive Michael O’Leary said.
“The Minister (Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov) asked us today and we gave him a commitment that out of the 5 million seats that will be offered in the first year, 20% or 1 million seats will be sold at less than EUR20,” O’Leary told Interfax-Ukraine.
He noted that the airline will be able to realize the goal if it has a low-cost base in Ukrainian airports and appropriate fee rates.
“We will need to have an inexpensive base in the airports. But this decision is up to the ministry. The minister (Kubrakov) asked if we will offer low rates and we said yes. Approximately 20% of seats will be sold at fares of EUR10, EUR14, EUR 19. This is one million passenger seats. We sell most of the tickets at EUR24, EUR29, EUR39. Now the only way to fill this number of seats is very low prices for air tickets”, – said the executive director of Ryanair.
He emphasized that Ukraine can have lower airfares than Poland, but must also ensure lower airport charges than in Poland.
As reported, Ryanair this week announced a commitment to resume flights to/from Ukraine at low fares within 8 weeks of the opening of Ukrainian airspace. The company plans to deploy up to 30 new Boeing 737 MAXs in Kiev, Lviv and Odessa at a cost of more than $3 billion. It was indicated that the airline is ready to operate up to 600 flights per week. In addition, Ryanair plans to open daily flights between Kiev, Lviv and Odessa as soon as the airports are ready for it.
It was noted that the airline plans to reach more than 5 million passenger seats per year in the first 12 months after the launch and intends to increase this number to 10 million passengers within five years.
