Protesting Polish farmers have begun to restrict vehicle traffic on the border with Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine says.
“Medica-Shegyni. Polish farmers have completely blocked truck traffic through the checkpoint. No deadline for the completion of such a blockade was announced,” the State Border Guard Service said in a statement on its Telegram channel on Tuesday.
According to the State Border Guard Service, the protesters plan to block traffic for all types of transport near the Dolhobychuv-Uhryniv checkpoint until 17.00 on February 20.
“At the Zosin-Ustyluh checkpoint, from 13:00 to 16:00, the protesters intend to restrict the movement of buses, trucks and cars in both directions. They promise to let through only trucks with humanitarian aid,” the State Border Guard Service said in a statement.
At the Korchova-Krakovets checkpoint: “Until 21.00 on February 20, the protesters plan to block the movement of trucks leaving Poland, except for those carrying critical cargo. At the same time, buses, minibuses, and cars will be able to move freely in both directions.”
According to the State Border Guard Service, at the Hrebenne-Rava-Ruska checkpoint, “protesters have completely blocked traffic in both directions for all categories of vehicles, except for those carrying critical cargo and humanitarian aid, since 13.00 on February 20.”
At the Dorohusk-Yahodyn checkpoint, the protest organizers intend to completely block truck traffic in both directions until “19.00”.
On Friday, December 1, special vehicles, emergency vehicles and bus service for passengers from the left bank to the right bank of the Podilsko-Voskresenskyi Bridge crossing were opened in Kyiv to ensure life support during martial law, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
“At the first stage, bus route No. 111 will operate here in the direction of the metro station “Square of Ukrainian Heroes” – metro station “Livoberezhna,” Klitschko wrote in his telegram channel.
He emphasized that the Podilsko-Voskresenskyi bridge crossing is the largest of the transport infrastructure facilities in Kyiv and Ukraine: its length is more than 10 km.
“A few years ago, we planned and promised to ensure passenger traffic as the first stage of the facility’s launch. And today, it has finally happened! To all the skeptics and those who tried to block the work at the facility, I will say one thing: now look for other reasons for your manipulations,” the mayor added.
The Union of Slovak Carriers plans to block the movement of freight transport in front of the Vysne Nemecke checkpoint adjacent to the Ukrainian checkpoint Uzhhorod from 16:00 on December 1, 2023, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reports.
“Four trucks per hour will be allowed to leave Slovakia. At the same time, the transportation of humanitarian and military aid, live animals, fuel and refrigerated cargo will not be blocked,” the message on the Telegram channel reads.
Drivers are asked to take into account possible traffic complications.
Frankfurt am Main Airport (FRG) handled 48.918 mln passengers in 2022, which was 97.2% higher than the previous year.
At the same time, passenger traffic remains 30.7 percent below the pre-pandemic 2019 figure, according to a press release from operator Fraport.
“2022 was a very tumultuous and challenging year for the entire aviation industry,” said Fraport CEO Stefan Schulte. – After lockdowns at the beginning of the year, the sudden and dramatic increase in demand was a heavy burden for all partners ramping up operations. Due to the complexity of the systems at many airports, including Frankfurt, the resumption of air traffic was unstable.”
Nevertheless, the group’s airports in other countries that focus on tourist traffic performed well. In Greece, among others, performance even surpassed pre-demic levels, the head of the company said.
“Looking ahead, we are confident there will be further growth in 2023. People want to travel, and we are working at full capacity to provide passengers with the best airport experience possible. Nevertheless, the situation remains challenging,” he noted.
The number of aircraft takeoffs and landings jumped 45.9 percent last year to 382,211,000. Relative to 2019 levels, the figure was down 25.6 percent.
Meanwhile, the volume of freight and postal shipments decreased by 13.3% year-on-year to about 2 million tons. Compared to the pre-season year, shipments decreased by 5.6%.
Four million people used the airport’s services in December, up 46.2 percent from the same month a year earlier. The number of takeoffs and landings increased by 7.9% to 30,157,000. Cargo and mail traffic dropped by 19% to 159,671,000 tons.
Fraport Group also released data on airports in other countries it manages.
Thus, at the airport named after Jože Pučnik (Ljubljana, Slovenia) the group served 970.15 thousand passengers in 2022 (more than doubling over the previous year), and in two airports in Brazil (Fortaleza and Porto Alegre) – 12.4 million passengers (+41%).
In Lima, Peru, passenger traffic jumped 72% to about 18.6 million.
In Greece, where Fraport operates 14 airports, traffic has increased by 79% to 31.2 million passengers.
The combined passenger traffic of the airports in Varna and Burgas (Bulgaria) increased by 59.2% to around 3.1 million passengers.
Antalya Airport (Turkey) served about 3.1 million people last year, which is 41.8% more than in 2021.
Because of the snowfall that began on Thursday, the movement of transport to the state border checkpoints in several regions has slowed down, the press service of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reported.
“The longest queues were formed on the border with Poland at the entrance to the checkpoints “Shehyni”, “Krakivets”, “Rava-Russkaya” in Lviv region, as well as before the checkpoints “Yagodin” and “Ustilug” in Volyn,” – said in the message.
It specifies that at the same time checkpoints in Transcarpathian and Chernivtsi regions are not overloaded.
“Take this information into account when crossing (the border – IF-U). In the meantime, border guards together with employees of the National Police, if necessary, carry out reverse traffic to pass cars and try to clear passengers and vehicles as quickly as possible”, – summarized in the State Border Guard Service.
Ukrainian airports in January 2022, according to recent data, served almost 1.226 million passengers, which is 135.3% more than in the same month last year.
According to the website of the State Aviation Service of Ukraine, in international traffic, passenger traffic of airports increased by 143.8% in January of this year, to 1.103 million people.
Ukrainian airlines served 515,500 people during the reporting period (79.6% more). In particular, 458,600 people were transported in international traffic (81% more).
At the same time, in January of this year, the airlines operated 4,700 commercial flights (an increase of 51.6%), including 3,600 international ones (56.5% more).
