The Ukrainian airline SkyUp has launched flights from Kyiv to Yerevan, Varna and Burgas, according to the company’s website. According to its data, the flights will be operated with departure from Boryspil airport (Kyiv, Terminal F).
Flights on the route Kyiv-Yerevan from May 17, 2019 will be operated twice a week on Mondays and Fridays.
Kyiv-Varna flights from June 14, 2019 will be operated on Fridays, flights on the Kyiv-Burgas route from May 31 with a frequency of two or three times a week.
As reported, in 2018 SkyUp Airlines passenger traffic amounted to 442,000 people.
As of January 2019, SkyUp’s fleet included five aircraft: four Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft with 189 seats, and one Boeing 737-700 NG airplane with 149 seats.
SkyUp airline has expanded its fleet with third Boeing 737-800 NG plane with 189 seats made in 2013, which became the fourth plane in the airline’s fleet.
“On the evening of November 28, the fourth plane of SkyUp Airlines, a Ukrainian low cost airline, Boeing 737-800, landed at the Kyiv airport,” Sikorsky Kyiv International Airport said on its Facebook page on Thursday.
In addition to the Boeing 737-800 NG, SkyUp has one Boeing 737-700 NG with 149 seats, and by the end of December, the airline is waiting for one more aircraft of each these two modifications.
SkyUp Airline LLC was registered in Kyiv in June 2016. The founder of SkyUp was ACS-Ukraine LLC belonging to Tetiana Alba and Yuriy Alba, who also own JoinUp! tour operator. The company began charter flights from the end of May 2018.
In October 2018, SkyUp airline received a Third Country Operator (TCO) License, allowing flying to 28 countries of the European Union (EU), as well as Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein. In December, the airline plans to launch regular flights.
SkyUp airline will launch regular flights from Kyiv to Tbilisi (Georgia) from December 27 this year, to Sofia (Bulgaria) from December 28, to Poprad (Slovakia) and Barcelona (Spain) from December 29.
“The first good news from SkyUp,” Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said on Facebook.
Tickets for flights to Tbilisi, Poprad and Barcelona in the booking system on the airline’s website are available until the end of March 2019, and to Sofia only until mid-January.
Flights to Tbilisi will be performed on Thursdays and Sundays (the minimum cost is from UAH 1,508), to the Tatras on Sundays and partially Thursdays (from UAH 954), to Barcelona on Wednesdays and Saturdays (from UAH 1,508), and to Sofia on Fridays (from UAH 1,329).
SkyUp Airline LLC was registered in Kyiv in June 2016. The founder of SkyUp was ACS-Ukraine LLC belonging to Tetiana Alba and Yuriy Alba, who also own JoinUp! tour operator.
The company began charter flights from the end of May 2018.
SkyUp airline has received a Third Country Operator (TCO) License, allowing to fly to 28 countries of the European Union (EU), as well as Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein.
“We are pleased to announce that SkyUp has passed the TCO procedure, having received permission to fly to European countries! Now the sky of Europe is open for us,” the airline said on its official Facebook page.
The TCO license is a single document for compliance with safety standards that allows flights to EU countries. It is issued centrally by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
The airline announced its readiness to announce new routes to Europe.
As reported, SkyUp airline plans to expand its own fleet by two new medium-haul Boeing 737-700s by the end of 2018, as well as to get one wide-body Airbus A330 into wet leasing.
SkyUp Airline LLC was registered in Kyiv in June 2016. The founder of SkyUp was ACS-Ukraine LLC belonged to Tatiana Alba and Yuriy Alba, who also own JoinUp! tour operator.
The company began charter flights from the end of May 2018.
SkyUp airline plans to expand its own fleet by two new medium-haul Boeing 737-700s by the end of 2018, as well as to get one wide-body Airbus A330 into wet leasing. “In the near future, we expect to get the second airplane [Airbus A330], just like our first one, into wet leasing. Sky Up will not operate in a “dry” form wide-body aircraft in the next two or three years. This is outside the company’s strategy,” Commercial Director of Join UP! tour operator Oleksandr Alba said at a press conference in Kyiv.
According to him, this year the company will replenish its own fleet of aircraft with two Boeing 737-700s, one of them will be received in the near future, the second one by the end of 2018.
He said now Sky Up planes perform flights to Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Albania, Georgia, and Montenegro.
“In the near future we will open sales on domestic flights, as well as on regular foreign flights,” he said, adding that the launch of regular flights is expected by the end of this summer.
SkyUp airline is studying the possibility of involving Ukrainian-made aircraft for domestic flights, the co-founder of the airline Yuriy Alba said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“We held the first round of negotiations under the auspices of Minister of Infrastructure [Volodymyr] Omelyan, and we met with the Antonov’s chief designer regarding the possibility of operating our domestic aircraft on domestic flights. We are now in active correspondence with the design office, collecting data to analyze the technical and economic characteristics of domestic planes. We also want to analyze the material base and training centers that train pilots for the operation of Antonov [aircraft]. We will soon be able to understand how fruitful cooperation with the domestic producer will be,” Alba said.
As he said, now the airline owns two Boeing planes, which the company has received in leasing. In the future SkyUp plans to expand the fleet by 10 aircraft.
“As for the deal with Boeing, we will decide on the financing issue together with the corporation. We are attracting funding from our tourism partners for the start. When we provide the first guaranteed payment, a joint trip will take place with representatives of the corporation to leading U.S. banks that will provide us with grant for obtaining loans from the World Bank,” Alba said.
According to him, the first part of the advance payment has already been made, further payments will be made annually according to the schedule.
“The prepayment was $4 million. It included contracts for the supply of five aircraft in 2023 and five aircraft in 2024. Also this advance payment included the signing of a contract for the leasing of current aircraft that had transferred from Malaysian Airlines and that are now servicing private flights for a tour operator,” the SkyUp co-founder said.
He added that the foreign partners of the company are engaged in financing the newly created airline.
