Businessman Vasyl Khmelnytsky is looking for a partner for the joint development of Kyiv Sikorsky International Airport (Zhuliany).
“I am now looking for a partner in the airport [Kyiv International Airport]. But it is important for me not just to sell the airport, but to find partners who have a slot of aircraft, who have a reputation in this business, who have cheap loans, who will do the right strategy for the airport. I need their experience,” Vasyl Khmelnytsky said during an interview with co-owner and CEO of TIS port Andriy Stavnitser.
The businessman also stressed that synergy with a partner is important to him.
As reported, Khmelnytsky announced that he plans to continue investing in Kyiv airport.
Kyiv International Airport is located 7 km from the center of the capital. It ranks second in Ukraine in terms of the number of flights and passenger traffic. The airport has three terminals with a total area of 21,000 square meters. The airport runway allows accepting aircraft such as Boeing-737, Airbus A-320. However, even with the A-320, there are loading restrictions on long haul flights.
Based on the results of the 2010 investment tender, the airport is managed by Master-Avia, which has entered into a 49-year lease agreement for the airport property. According to the company, during this time it has invested more than $ 50 million in the creation of new airport infrastructure and is still using all available resources to pay off the loan. The beneficiaries of the company, according to the unified state register of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, are Vasyl Khmelnytsky and Kostrzhevsky.
In March 2019, Khmelnytsky said that his UFuture business group owns 90% of the shares of Master-Avia LLC, another 10% in the company belongs to Khmelnytsky’s partner Denys Kostrzhevsky.
Master-Avia owns terminals and the apron, and the airfield and the runway are on the balance sheet of municipal enterprise Kyiv International Airport (Zhuliany).
A plane from Afghanistan, sent to evacuate Ukrainian citizens and their families, has landed at the Boryspil international airport, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reports.
“Ukraine does not leave its citizens alone, no matter where they are,” said Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Malyar when meeting the plane at the airport.
There are 96 people on board, including citizens of Ukraine, as well as persons with a permanent residence permit in Ukraine, members of their families, persons whose return was requested by the Vatican and Canada.
Malyar noted that Ukraine will continue to provide assistance to its citizens and citizens of other countries in the future.
Uzhgorod International Airport received its first flight on Friday in accordance with the intergovernmental agreement signed between Ukraine and Slovakia in September 2020.
According to the press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, now air traffic control, as well as the use of airspace at a tactical level, will take place in a certain part of the airspace of Slovakia. Non-precision instrument approach procedures will be applied at the Uzhgorod aerodrome.
The ministry said that this agreement was necessary due to the fact that this airport is located in a mountainous area in such a way that the threshold of runway 10 is located a few hundred meters from the Ukrainian-Slovak border. Therefore, the use of the airspace of a neighboring country is a prerequisite for instrument landings at this airfield.
“From today, the possibilities of using the airfield for airlines in Uzhgorod have been expanded. This is the result of Ukraine’s long-term work at the international level, and we expect that it will have a positive effect on the development of air transportation in the region. We see that there is a demand for both international and domestic flights. For example, flights on the route Kyiv – Uzhgorod – Kyiv, restored this summer, almost always take place with full load of seats,” Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said.
UkSATSE, in turn, said that Ukraine’s ability to manage air traffic in part of the airspace of an EU member state is proved by an updated certificate that the state-owned enterprise received from the EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on August 31, 2021.
More than 120 police officers of Kyiv region provide protection of public safety and order at the Boryspil airport during the arrival of Hasidic pilgrims, the Interior Ministry’s Telegram channel reported on Wednesday.
“The police are carrying out a set of security measures so that Israelis and citizens of other foreign countries can celebrate the Jewish New Year in safety. A number of services are involved in ensuring public safety and order: Boryspil district police, patrol police, special police, explosives, dialogue police and more than 50 servicemen of the National Guard,” the report said.
There is also a Situation Center at the airport, which is also responsible for coordinating the activities of the law enforcement units involved.
As reported, this year the mass celebration of the Jewish New Year falls on September 6-8. Several thousand Hasidic pilgrims have already arrived in Uman, Cherkasy region, to celebrate the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah in advance, as not everyone was able to attend the celebration last year due to intensified anti-epidemic measures. In total, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine expects the arrival of more than 20,000 believers this year.
It is known that every autumn pilgrims go to Uman to celebrate Rosh Hashanah on the grave of their spiritual leader Nachman. He was born in the town of Medzhybizh (Khmelnytsky region now) in 1772 (5532 from the creation of the world according to the Jewish calendar). Then he led a nomadic lifestyle, visited different towns of Ukraine, mainly Medvedivka and Zlatopil, and spent the last eight years of his life in Braslav (now – Belarus). In 1808, Rabbi Nachman contracted tuberculosis and settled in Uman, where he was buried in 1810. Since then, the city has become a center of Hasidic worship, where they gather from all over the world every Jewish New Year.
All basic services of Kyiv Sikorsky International Airport are to be transferred to an electronic format, Yevhen Belik, the director of the enterprise development, said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“Together with Director General Olha Tovkes, we are now looking towards digitalization, the development of marketplaces and an e-commerce module for the comfort of passengers and more efficient management of our revenues,” he said.
According to Belik, this can be not only priority registration, but also expedited formalities, payment for parking and even buying coffee in a cafe and perfumery in duty-free stores.
“The module is still under development, but we know for sure that it will be an application that every passenger can install and order any service for himself from anywhere in the world,” he said.
The airport development director noted that at the moment the distribution of total profits between the aviation and non-aviation sectors is 70% to 30%.
He also said that the approach to the formation of profitability has changed at the airport.
“If earlier we took into account the area of leased space, now we take into account another component – conversion from sq m. In other words, how efficiently the tenant works,” Belik said.
In particular, in order to provide a full and varied leisure while waiting for a flight, the concept of duty-free shops was changed, now they will offer a different assortment of different price categories.
“A specialized shop for optics and haberdashery is already operating. In the near future, a targeted children’s duty-free shop with a large assortment of toys and gadgets will be opened, and a children’s zone will be equipped nearby,” Belik said.
Four locations with a total area of 1,500 square meters is represented by the leading duty-free operator Heinemann. Another of the locations, about 100 sq m, will soon be considered as a potential choice for a new duty-free operator.
Passenger traffic of Sikorsky Kyiv International Airport in January-July 2021 amounted to 524,200 passengers, which is 8.3% higher than in the same period in 2020 (483,900).
As reported on the airport’s website, by the end of July, the airport serviced 186,900 passengers, which is 3.5 times more than in 2020 (52,400). The number of passengers served on international flights is 179,700 and 7,200 passengers on domestic flights.
The number of flights in July was 2,196.
Kyiv International Airport is located in the business center of Kyiv, 7 km from the city center. It ranks second in Ukraine in terms of the number of flights and passenger traffic.
