President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during a working visit to Odesa region was informed on the implementation of the project of reconstruction and construction of the Odesa International Airport airfield complex, the president’s press office announced.
Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy noted that the new runway of Odesa airport is 2,800 meters in length and 45 meters in width. The new airfield will allow to accommodate airplanes in category D designated for mid- and long-duration flights, in particular, Boeing-747-400/800, in category III ICAO and other aircraft with a capacity up to 300 passengers. The overall cost of the aerodrome reconstruction project totals UAH 3.9 billion.
The minister added that the new runway will allow Odesa airport to receive more than 2 million passengers a year, a new taxi strip, when constructed, to receive more than 5 million.
Zelensky inquired if there was a passenger demand for the construction of a new airport strip.
“There is a demand, of course, because Odesa is a tourist city, it is developing. This year, the Travel Ukraine program was launched, and Odesa airport accepted too many passengers, even despite COVID-19 challenges we face today,” Krykliy said.
State-owned enterprise (SOE) Boryspil International Airport plans to start reconstruction of maneuvering area No. 2 in 2020 under a memorandum signed with Chia Communications Construction Company (CCCC) and relaunch it in 2021.
“The reconstruction works will be paid for using the loan and partly at the expense of the company’s own funds. The Chinese Eximbank can issue a government-secured loan. Financing rates with government guarantees are much lower than commercial ones and do not require additional expenses from the airport,” Commercial Director of the airport Heorhiy Zubko told Interfax- Ukraine.
He said that the Chinese company, at its own expense, prepared and submitted a pre-feasibility study of the project to the airport under the memorandum signed by the airport and CCCC. According to Zubko, the airport has already prepared its comments on the draft pre-feasibility study, which CCCC should resolve before the end of the year, after which negotiations on financing will be held with the bank.
“The procurement procedure was not carried out and the Boryspil airport did not spend the company’s money and the budget,” he said, adding that the construction proposal had been put forward by the Chinese side.
Zubko does not report on the final cost of the reconstruction project, since it will be known only at the final design stage.
