Passenger traffic across Ukraine’s border increased by 3.7% year-on-year to 452,000 passengers in the first week of winter (November 30-December 6) as the Christmas holidays approached.
According to the State Border Guard Service’s Facebook page, the number of outbound crossings increased from 222,000 to 229,000, while the number of inbound crossings increased from 214,000 to 223,000.
As for their distribution by day of the week, according to the border guards, traditionally, the maximum flow of exit traffic was on Friday-Sunday, while the maximum flow of entry traffic was on Saturday-Monday.
The number of vehicles crossing the checkpoints increased from 118,000 to 122,000 over the week, while the flow of vehicles carrying humanitarian aid slightly decreased from 577 to 565.
The State Border Guard Service indicates that as of 12:00 Sunday, a small queue was observed at only one checkpoint: “Ustyluh” on the border with Poland – 10 cars, while at all other checkpoints there were no queues.
The total number of people crossing the border in the first week of winter this year is higher than last year’s: 206 thousand people left Ukraine and 209 thousand entered during the same seven days, with a traffic flow of 108 thousand cars.
As reported, on May 10, 2022, the outflow of refugees from Ukraine, which began with the outbreak of war, was replaced by an influx that lasted until September 23, 2022 and amounted to 409 thousand people. However, since the end of September, possibly under the influence of news about mobilization in Russia and “pseudo-referendums” in the occupied territories, and then massive shelling of energy infrastructure, the number of people leaving has been exceeding the number of people entering. It temporarily stopped in the second half of December and early January during the holidays, but then resumed again and reached a total of 223 thousand people from the end of September 2022 to the first anniversary of the full-scale war.
During the second year of the full-scale war, the number of border crossings to leave Ukraine, according to the State Border Guard Service, exceeded the number of crossings to enter by 25 thousand, while since the beginning of the third year, the number of crossings to enter has increased by another 184 thousand.
As Deputy Economy Minister Serhiy Sobolev noted in early March last year, the return of every 100,000 Ukrainians home results in a 0.5% increase in GDP. In its macroeconomic forecast for this year, the Ministry of Economy has included 1.5 million people returning to Ukraine.
At the same time, the National Bank, in its October inflation report, again downgraded its forecast for the outflow from Ukraine this year from 0.4 million to 0.5 million. In absolute terms, the number of migrants staying abroad this year is expected to increase to 6.8 million.
According to updated UNHCR data, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe was estimated at 6.226 million as of November 18, and 6.786 million worldwide, which is 34 thousand more than as of October 15.
In Ukraine itself, according to the latest UN data as of August this year, there were 3.669 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), which is 121 thousand more than in April this year.
According to regional authorities cited by the UN, more than 128,000 people have left Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine since August 1, including 24,000 who fled active hostilities, while approximately 330,000 remain in the region, including approximately 63,000 in active combat zones.
In Sumy region, the authorities estimate that 36,000 people, including 6,000 children, were evacuated between August 1 and October 3.
In January-October, Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) increased passenger traffic by 12.7% to 23.3 million passengers compared to the same period last year, the company’s press service said on Thursday.
“In October, UZ carried 2.3 million passengers, which is 100 thousand passengers more than in September, when there is traditionally a decline in the dynamics of passenger traffic compared to the summer season,” the press service of UZ said in a statement on its telegram channel.
It is reported that the most popular flight is train #128 Zaporizhzhia – Lviv, which carried 53 thousand passengers in October. The second and third places, as in the previous month, were taken by high-speed trains of the Przemyśl direction – No. 705/706 and No. 715/716 with 51 thousand and 48 thousand passengers, respectively.
The most popular route was Lviv-Kyiv-Lviv: 125 thousand passengers traveled between these cities in October.
In October, passengers purchased 532 thousand servings of hot drinks, including tea and coffee.
In May 2024, Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) increased passenger traffic by 21% compared to the same period in 2023, to 2.4 million passengers, the UZ press service reported on Telegram on Tuesday.
According to the report, domestic traffic increased by 22% last month to 2.2 million passengers, and international traffic by 21% to 200 thousand passengers.
The leader of growth in domestic traffic in May was the Kyiv – Chop route, which grew by 221%. This was the result of the development of Chop station as a transfer hub between domestic and international trains, in particular the opening of an alternative travel option to Budapest and Vienna after the launch of trains 367/745 Lutsk/Kyiv-Chop and 143/146 Chop-Vienna in December 2023, UZ said.
In addition, the Mykolaiv-Kyiv and Kyiv-Mykolaiv routes showed an increase of 52% and 66%, respectively. High demand was also observed on the routes Kyiv-Khmelnytsky-Kyiv, Kyiv-Helm-Kyiv, Kyiv-Vinnytsia-Kyiv.
Earlier it was reported that from the beginning of the year to mid-May, UZ increased international passenger traffic by 27.7% to almost 800 thousand passengers and expects further growth in the summer months.
Ukrzaliznytsia JSC (UZ) plans to increase passenger traffic by 10% to 27.5 million passengers in 2024, according to a presentation made by the company’s CEO Yevhen Lyaschenko during a chat with journalists on Thursday.
At the same time, revenue from passenger transportation is expected to grow to UAH 10.6 billion in 2024, up from UAH 9.3 billion last year and UAH 5.3 billion a year earlier.
The growth in passenger traffic is driven by the launch of trains on international routes, according to a presentation by Ukrzaliznytsia. In particular, revenues from international passenger transportation amounted to UAH 2.6 billion in 2023, compared to UAH 1 billion in 2022. In fact, 2.1 million passengers were transported, compared to 1.1 million in 2022 and 0.04 million in 2021. In 2024, UZ expects to carry 2.3 million passengers, generating UAH 3.5 billion in revenue.
“International transportation, unlike domestic transportation, is profitable. We break even only on the Lviv-Rava-Ruska-Warsaw route (operated by the Polish company SKPL, which receives payment from UZ for services – IF-U),” Lyashchenko said.
In 2024, UZ also expects to increase domestic transportation to 25.2 million passengers, up from 22.8 million last year. Revenue from their transportation is expected to increase from UAH 6.7 billion in 2023 to UAH 7.2 billion.
The company reminded that in 2023, 15 new passenger trains were appointed, increasing the number of domestic routes to 66. In addition, three new international routes were launched: Vienna-Budapest-Chop, Lviv-Rava-Ruska-Warsaw, and Chop-Prague (operated by the Czech railway operator RegioJet – IF-U). The number of international routes in 2023 reached 25.
UZ plans to overhaul 63 passenger cars in 2024, which will increase the capacity of the passenger service. Also, the overhaul of the laundry in Kyiv, which will improve the quality of washing and the volume of laundry processing.
The seat availability monitoring feature, which is currently being tested in the UZ app, will be launched in full. The company also plans to integrate online scoreboards with a GPS system, refine loyalty programs, and update the classification of cars depending on their brand, which will make it easier for passengers to find the right category for them depending on the range of services.
Passenger traffic on the border with Poland in both directions has increased by 8 thousand people in recent days due to the approaching Easter holidays, in this regard, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reports about queues at checkpoints “Krakivets” and “Shegini” and recommends to use other border crossings.
“For crossing the border by cars and buses travelers most often choose checkpoints “Krakovets” and “Shegini”. Therefore, in front of these checkpoints there is an accumulation of traffic. At the same time, border guards periodically record queues also at the entrance to Ukraine,” – reported in the telegram channel of the State Border Service on Tuesday.
According to the border department, the least dynamics of traffic is observed at the checkpoints “Smolnitsa”, “Grushev”, “Rava-Ruska” and “Ugrini”. “In order to reduce the waiting time in queues we recommend citizens to choose these checkpoints to cross the border,” – stated in the message. This year’s Catholic Easter will be on March 31.
Border Guard Service of Ukraine, EASTER, Krakivets, PASSENGER TRAFFIC, POLAND, Шегини
In 2023, Ukrainian airline SkyUp Airlines increased the number of passengers carried by 24% compared to 2022, to 1.546 million.
According to the official website of SkyUp Airlines, the airline also operated 10,528 flights to 53 countries on 664 routes, which is 36% more than in 2022.
The largest number of flights were operated by SkyUp Airlines to/from Chisinau Airport – 2 thousand flights, Egypt – 1.685 thousand, Turkey – 1.219 thousand, Tunisia – 675 flights, Romania – 556 flights, the report says.
It is noted that in 2023, the airline cooperated under ACMI contracts with Tunisair, FlyOne, HiSky SRL, HiSky Europe SRL, Wizz Air Malta, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, Corendon Dutch, Tailwind Airlines, and FlyEgypt.
“After a turbulent 2022, 2023 was a year of stabilization for the airline. We significantly increased the volume of ACMI contracts and became one of the 20 most popular airlines in Europe. These results allowed us to retain a team of professionals, which is now actually the key to the future recovery of Ukrainian civil aviation,” SkyUp CEO Dmytro Seroukhov said in a statement.
He assured that in 2024, the airline will continue to strengthen its position in the ACMI and charter markets, and expressed hope for Ukraine’s soonest victory and the resumption of flights in Ukrainian airspace.
SkyUp reported that in 2023 it retained a team of 1,139 professionals and paid almost UAH 200 million in taxes to the state.
In November and December 2023, SkyUp Airlines took part in a highly complex operation to rescue Ukrainian citizens from the Gaza Strip. We managed to evacuate about 200 Ukrainians. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked SkyUp Airlines for its assistance in the evacuation of Ukrainians from the Gaza Strip, the statement said.
It is also said that SkyUp is working to improve processes and introduce modern technologies: in 2023, the company signed an agreement with IBS Software to implement solutions that will modernize distribution, increase revenues, and improve service systems.
In addition, the airline is implementing an aviation security risk management system from Osprey Flight Solutions. The airline has trained staff and launched the software, the statement said. It is noted that thanks to adapted data collection, forecasting capabilities, automatic alerts and prioritization, the Osprey system continuously monitors changes, instantly adjusts risk assessments and sends appropriate notifications for further decision-making on possible changes to routes and flight schedules.
In 2023, SkyUP entered the European market by founding SkyUp MT, which received an Air Operator Certificate (AOC), a Continuing Airworthiness Management Organization (CAMO) certificate, and an Air Operator License (AOL). The airline’s office is located in Malta, and its fleet currently includes two Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
In 2023, the airline received permission to operate in the United States of America – a foreign air carrier certificate FAR129. In addition, SkyUp can operate in Canada. The FAOC certificate allows the Ukrainian airline to provide ACMI services and operate charter flights from other countries to Canada.
SkyUp has been operating commercial flights under ACMI contracts since mid-April 2022. As of June 2023, according to the ACMI Contract Monitor report by ch-aviation, the carrier was ranked among the top 15 ACMI service providers and among the airlines with the largest ACMI contracts.
