The cargo terminal will be launched at the Odessa international airport in 2022, Director General of the enterprise Vitaliy Semenchenko said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“We have an arrangement as a letter of understanding, which allow us to discuss, without sealing any rights and obligations, but confirming our interest, with the largest European cargo operator. We are now in almost a daily dialog on technical issues. The terminal is being formed, its volume and structure. It will definitely work in 2022,” Semenchenko said.
According to him, the project of the cargo terminal will be implemented using private investments, but their volume has not yet been named, since it depends, first of all, on the requirements of future tenants. “There will definitely be a cooling zone, a zone of dangerous goods, the necessary equipment will be bought depending from their volume,” Semenchenko said.
Ukrzaliznytsia is planning pilot projects for the long-term lease of cargo terminals.
“We are planning several pilot projects related to the long-term lease of our assets, such as cargo terminals. We want to create centers with international players on the basis of cargo terminals,” Ukrzaliznytsia head Volodymyr Zhmak said during the All-Ukrainian Forum Ukraine 30.Infrastructure on Tuesday.
According to him, these projects will also create an opportunity of additional employment. The company really plans to optimize staff, but primarily at the expense of administrative and managerial staff, Zhmak said.
State-owned enterprise (SOE) Boryspil International Airport plans to start building a cargo terminal in 2019 even if no investor is found, Director Pavlo Riabikin said at the Global Outlook 2018 conference organized by the European Business Association (EBA) in Kyivy. According to him, the existing cargo infrastructure of the Boryspil airport was formed in the late 1960s – early 1970s and it was designed to handle about 40 tonnes of cargo per day. “Today we process 110-120 tonnes of cargo a day, which is very problematic with the existing infrastructure,” Riabikin said.
According to him, in the past four years there has been a lot of talk about attracting investors and creating an investment project for the construction of a cargo terminal at the airport, but due to the fact that the state has few mechanisms for attracting investors to infrastructure projects, this has not been realized.
“Next year, if the ministry [the Infrastructure Ministry] fails to attract an investor, we plan to build a new cargo terminal based on existing capacities, but we will implement it using own forces. To be honest, the volumes of investment that we need in coming years make the implementation of the cargo terminal very difficult,” the head of the enterprise said.
Riabikin said that the project for the construction of the cargo terminal is not a profile for the airport, since the company is oriented, first of all, to passenger transportation.
“I think we are able to implement it [the construction of the cargo terminal] during a year and a half. The only question is whether we have the funds or the opportunity to attract them,” Riabikin said.
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.
