Starting April 25, Ukrzaliznytsia will begin selling tickets for “luxury” class cars based on new pricing factors—ticket prices will be adjusted according to four factors.
As reported on Ukrzaliznytsia’s Telegram channel on Saturday, these changes will apply exclusively to travel in SV (luxury) and first-class cars on domestic Intercity trains.
“Dynamic pricing for tickets in the premium segment—the relevant order has passed public review and is taking effect. Ticket sales based on the new coefficients will begin on April 25. The indexation of fares in SV (luxury) cars on international trains has also been approved,” according to a statement from Ukrzaliznytsia.
To improve seat availability—which is especially important during the peak season, which is just around the corner—ticket prices in the premium segment will be flexibly adjusted based on four factors:
1. Seasonality. During periods when trains are only 70–80% full, tickets will be cheaper. And during peak months, such as August, when demand is highest, the price will be higher. In total, there will be 16 seasonality zones reflecting the current calendar of holidays, vacations, etc. This will help passengers choose more cost-effective travel times, improve seat availability during peak periods, and increase train occupancy during off-peak periods.
2. Day of the week. The lowest prices will be on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and the highest when the travel date falls on Fridays and Sundays, when demand is highest. Passengers who can change their travel date will have an additional incentive to do so, and their seats will become available for others on the most popular days.
3. Advance Purchase. The number of days before the train’s departure for which a ticket is purchased. Today, nearly 30% of passengers buy tickets on the day of travel or two days before. The new approach will encourage planning trips in advance and buying tickets at a better price. This will allow for the most efficient use of rolling stock.
4. Occupancy. If a train is 90–100% full, the price may be higher. But if there are still empty seats before departure, the price will decrease. This will allow passengers who would otherwise choose a different travel class to travel in first class or SV at a more affordable price. Implementing this mechanism requires further development of IT systems and will be implemented separately.
Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair has launched a promotional “Big Idiot seat sale” amid a public dispute between the airline’s CEO Michael O’Leary and entrepreneur Ilon Musk on social network X. The promotion is of a marketing nature and applies to the carrier’s European route network, rather than a “global” sale.
The occasion for the wrangle was O’Leary’s statements that Ryanair would not install Starlink satellite internet on planes because of the extra costs and “fuel drag” from the antennas. According to the Ryanair chief, the combined installation and operating costs could be as high as $200-250 million per year. Musk responded by calling O’Leary an “idiot” and launched a poll about a hypothetical purchase of Ryanair, to which O’Leary publicly responded in the same style.
As part of the campaign, Ryanair offered 100,000 tickets priced from €16.99 one-way for flights in the coming months, saying it was using the surge of attention surrounding the conflict to promote the sale.
O’Leary also emphasized that the scenario of a “takeover” of the carrier by a non-EU resident is practically unrealizable: the EU has rules that require control of EU-registered airlines to remain with European owners (in practice, non-EU ownership is limited), and Ryanair has separate procedures in place to control and limit the rights of non-EU shareholders.
Ireland’s Ryanair, Europe’s largest budget airline, will offer 1 million or 20% of tickets priced below EUR20 after resuming flights from/to Ukraine, the airline’s chief executive Michael O’Leary said.
“The Minister (Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov) asked us today and we gave him a commitment that out of the 5 million seats that will be offered in the first year, 20% or 1 million seats will be sold at less than EUR20,” O’Leary told Interfax-Ukraine.
He noted that the airline will be able to realize the goal if it has a low-cost base in Ukrainian airports and appropriate fee rates.
“We will need to have an inexpensive base in the airports. But this decision is up to the ministry. The minister (Kubrakov) asked if we will offer low rates and we said yes. Approximately 20% of seats will be sold at fares of EUR10, EUR14, EUR 19. This is one million passenger seats. We sell most of the tickets at EUR24, EUR29, EUR39. Now the only way to fill this number of seats is very low prices for air tickets”, – said the executive director of Ryanair.
He emphasized that Ukraine can have lower airfares than Poland, but must also ensure lower airport charges than in Poland.
As reported, Ryanair this week announced a commitment to resume flights to/from Ukraine at low fares within 8 weeks of the opening of Ukrainian airspace. The company plans to deploy up to 30 new Boeing 737 MAXs in Kiev, Lviv and Odessa at a cost of more than $3 billion. It was indicated that the airline is ready to operate up to 600 flights per week. In addition, Ryanair plans to open daily flights between Kiev, Lviv and Odessa as soon as the airports are ready for it.
It was noted that the airline plans to reach more than 5 million passenger seats per year in the first 12 months after the launch and intends to increase this number to 10 million passengers within five years.
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) plans to start the usual mode of dialog with passengers in one month, UIA President Yevhen Dykhne has said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“I won’t tell you the exact number how many passenger requests have been handled right now. Since the termination of flights, we have about 27,000 requests pending response. And almost the same number arrived at UIA client communication platforms in the early days of this period,” he said.
According to Dykhne, the additional difficulty with handling passenger requests is that UIA is forced to quit the usual work through call centers under quarantine conditions.
“Most often, call centers are built on open space technology and work in them does not comply with quarantine conditions. Therefore, our own call center and the external call centers that serviced us were closed. We switched to e-mailing and messaging with passengers,” the president of UIA said.
A total of up to 150 people in the airline is involved in e-mailing and messaging with passengers. In one working day, this number ranges from 60 to 110, as such employees work remotely, while in the call center up to 600 employees of the airline worked simultaneously at the peak hours.
“Today, we handle up to 2,000 requests a day, but it’s still 90% less than it is being received. I think that we will need another month of work in order to get into the usual dialogue with passengers, not all-hands work, because mailing and messaging, of course, is a longer process than voice calls,” he said.
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.
