Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

Passenger traffic at Frankfurt am Main Airport to double in 2022

Frankfurt am Main Airport (FRG) handled 48.918 mln passengers in 2022, which was 97.2% higher than the previous year.
At the same time, passenger traffic remains 30.7 percent below the pre-pandemic 2019 figure, according to a press release from operator Fraport.
“2022 was a very tumultuous and challenging year for the entire aviation industry,” said Fraport CEO Stefan Schulte. – After lockdowns at the beginning of the year, the sudden and dramatic increase in demand was a heavy burden for all partners ramping up operations. Due to the complexity of the systems at many airports, including Frankfurt, the resumption of air traffic was unstable.”
Nevertheless, the group’s airports in other countries that focus on tourist traffic performed well. In Greece, among others, performance even surpassed pre-demic levels, the head of the company said.
“Looking ahead, we are confident there will be further growth in 2023. People want to travel, and we are working at full capacity to provide passengers with the best airport experience possible. Nevertheless, the situation remains challenging,” he noted.
The number of aircraft takeoffs and landings jumped 45.9 percent last year to 382,211,000. Relative to 2019 levels, the figure was down 25.6 percent.
Meanwhile, the volume of freight and postal shipments decreased by 13.3% year-on-year to about 2 million tons. Compared to the pre-season year, shipments decreased by 5.6%.
Four million people used the airport’s services in December, up 46.2 percent from the same month a year earlier. The number of takeoffs and landings increased by 7.9% to 30,157,000. Cargo and mail traffic dropped by 19% to 159,671,000 tons.
Fraport Group also released data on airports in other countries it manages.
Thus, at the airport named after Jože Pučnik (Ljubljana, Slovenia) the group served 970.15 thousand passengers in 2022 (more than doubling over the previous year), and in two airports in Brazil (Fortaleza and Porto Alegre) – 12.4 million passengers (+41%).
In Lima, Peru, passenger traffic jumped 72% to about 18.6 million.
In Greece, where Fraport operates 14 airports, traffic has increased by 79% to 31.2 million passengers.
The combined passenger traffic of the airports in Varna and Burgas (Bulgaria) increased by 59.2% to around 3.1 million passengers.
Antalya Airport (Turkey) served about 3.1 million people last year, which is 41.8% more than in 2021.

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Transcarpathian Regional Council wants to resume work of Uzhhorod Airport in 1-2 months

At a session at the end of this week, the Transcarpathian Regional Council decided to increase the authorized capital of the Uzhgorod airport located near the border with the EU by UAH 26 million in order to resume its work without waiting for the end of the war.
“We have significantly raised the funding of the Uzhgorod airport … in order to carry out the necessary procedures, obtain permits, build the necessary buildings and, finally, start earning, and not count losses,” Volodymyr Chubirko, head of the Transcarpathian Regional Council, wrote on Facebook.
“The former minus – the runway, which starts abroad, has become its plus. We must use it,” he said.
The international airport “Uzhgorod” is located in a mountainous area in such a way that the threshold of the runway 10 is located a few hundred meters from the Ukrainian-Slovak border. Therefore, Slovak airspace is used for instrument landings at this aerodrome.
In September 2020, Ukraine and Slovakia signed an intergovernmental agreement, and a year later, the airport accepted the first flight using a certain part of the Slovak airspace.
Local media also report Chubirko’s words, who expressed confidence that the airport will be launched “in a month or two”, and Ukrainian companies based in Europe today will use it.

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CHERKASY AIRPORT RECEIVES CERTIFICATION TO OPERATE AFTER THREE-YEAR BREAK

Cherkasy airport has received an aerodrome certificate, according to which the airport meets the requirements of Ukrainian civil aviation legislation and is suitable for aircraft operation.According to the website of Cherkasy Regional State Administration, the airport resumed certification after a three-year break. The document is valid until 2024.Also, documents have been submitted for the commissioning of the airport runway.The project for the overhaul of Cherkasy airport was launched in 2018, but the work was suspended and resumed only in the summer of 2021. The total cost of the reconstruction was about UAH 129 million.

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BUSINESSMAN VASYL KHMELNYTSKY LOOKING FOR PARTNER TO DEVELOP KIEV INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

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).

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PLANE FROM AFGHANISTAN WITH UKRAINIAN CITIZENS LANDS AT BORYSPIL INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

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.

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UZHGOROD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT RECEIVES FIRST FLIGHT UNDER WITH SLOVAKIA

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.

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