According to preliminary results, Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) carried 1.787 million passengers from January to December 2020, which is four times less than the result for 2019 (about 8 million passengers).
The press service of the company reported that during the specified period, UIA operated about 17,000 regular and code-share flights, which is 72% less compared to the same indicator for 2019. The percentage of transit passengers amounted to 43% of the total traffic (486,000 passengers, 86% less).
The company also noted that in 2020 it transported more than 4,800 tonnes of cargo (15,000 tonnes in 2019) and 1,350 tonnes of mail (4,400 tonnes in 2019).
“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and government decisions to ban flights, the airline was forced to cancel thousands of flights and, as a result, the airline received thousands of requests for refunds. In the period from April to November 2020, some 85,861 passenger requests and returns in the amount of almost $ 22 million were processed. By this time, about 56,000 unprocessed applications for refunds were recorded. UIA employees carefully record each appeal and process them in turn,” UIA added.
The airline noted that during the lockdown, UIA optimized its work: it reduced its expenditures by three times, optimized its fleet and proportionally cut its staff by about 1,000 people.
As of the middle of August, Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) transported 113,345 passengers and 390,185 tonnes of cargo since the resumption of flights in the middle of June.
“Starting from mid-June until mid-August, we carried out around 1,238 regular and charter flights, of which 86% departed on schedule,” UIA President Yevhen Dykhne said on Facebook.
He also recalled that in the first half of the year the UIA transported around 1 million passengers, while last year this index reached almost 4 million.
“This means that aviation in fact has to start from zero, and the interest and persistence of employees alone are worthy of attention,” Dykhne said.
He also said that the airline has a range of plans for autumn, adding that he expects the company’s results would only grow.
As reported, earlier the UIA reduced its August flight schedule due to the extension of a ban on entering the Schengen zone for Ukrainian citizens by the EU.
Irish-registered low-cost airline Ryanair (Dublin) transported 500,000 passengers from and to Kyiv’s Boryspil international airport since September 2018 and plans to double this figure until the end of 2019. This was announced by Olga Pawlonka, Ryanair’s international communications manager during the welcoming ceremony of the 500,000th passenger at Boryspil on Friday, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent said.
“We are developing at a very fast pace in Ukraine. We are thinking about opening directions from all cities of Ukraine. From winter there will be two new routes from Kharkiv, five new ones from Odesa. From the end of October, we will launch seven new routes from Kyiv. Now there are 17 routes from Kyiv , but from winter their number will be 24,” she noted. At the same time, answering a question about the possible opening of a representative office in Ukraine, Pawlonka said that this was impossible. “As Ryanair is a low-cost company, there is only one office in Dublin, from which operations around the world are handled. That is why it is impossible. This is impossible without value increase,” she explained.
As reported, Ryanair in May 2019 launched the Ukrainian version of its official website.
The total volume of transportation by rail by Lemtrans in 2018 reached 52.12 million tonnes of different types of cargo, which is 0.43% more than in 2017.
The press service of the company reported that coal and iron ore were the major cargo transported by the company last year.
“The largest growth in the year was in transportation of coal. In particular, the volume of its transportation amounted to 21.24 million tonnes, for iron ore it was 16.13 million tonnes. By the end of 2017, the transportation of these types of cargo amounted to 19.35 million tonnes and 19, 30 million tonnes, respectively,” the company said.
In addition, in 2018, the volume of loading of ferrous metals increased by 21.7%, to 7.45 million tonnes (6.12 million tonnes in 2017) and of coke by 2.43%, to 3.02 million tonnes (2.95 million tonnes). Transportation volumes of fluxes amounted to 3.30 million tonnes (3.50 million tonnes).
During the year, the volume of planned repair of freight wagons of the company at production sites amounted to 6,453 units.
Lemtrans is the largest private operator of railway rolling stock in Ukraine. Its core business is organization of transportation by own rolling stock, rendering transport and forwarding services, information support for cargo movement, as well as rolling stock repairs.
Lemtrans fully belongs to SCM Group of businessman Rinat Akhmetov.
