The aviation authorities of Ukraine and Turkey have agreed to significantly expand regular flights, Ukraine’s Ministry of Infrastructure has said.
“Based on the results of successful negotiations at the level of the aviation authorities of Ukraine and Turkey, regular flights with the Republic of Turkey were substantially expanded. The weekly frequency for passenger transportation on most routes was almost doubled. The limit on the number of flights was removed for the Odesa-Istanbul route. Cargo transportation is also without restrictions,” Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy said.
According to him, now 11 cities of Ukraine have the opportunity of direct air communication with Turkey, namely Kyiv, Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Chernivtsi, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Zaporizhia.
“This is an impetus for the development of regional airports. Thanks to the State Aviation Administration for a good work. We are not resting on our laurels. We are confidently stepping west towards the Open Sky,” the minister said.
The minister also emphasized that the expansion of regular international and domestic flights to/from Ukrainian cities is an important part of the integrated development of the aviation industry in Ukraine.
“We liberalize international air transportation, modernize regional airports, create equal conditions for airlines to enter and develop a transparent and competitive market for passenger and cargo transportation by air,” Krykliy said.
Ukraine and Turkey have agreed to update proposals regarding the free trade area (FTA), the Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, Ukraine’s Trade Representative Taras Kachka has said.
“Today, a memorandum on the modality of further negotiations will be signed … Today, we have actually agreed to update the proposals of both parties, including in the agreed part,” Kachka wrote on Facebook.
He added that this would make it possible to review the results of negotiations of past years.
“The main thing is to give meaningfulness and mutual benefit to these negotiations,” the trade representative said.
Negotiations on the establishment of a FTA between Ukraine and Turkey began in 2011.
OTI Holding, which includes the Ukrainian tour operator Coral Travel, intends to create the OTI Hotels & Resorts International hotel chain as part of the reorganization of the hotel business. Director of Coral Travel Tetiana Prokopenko told Interfax-Ukraine that by the beginning of the summer season 2020, the network will include more than 20 hotels, and by the end of the year it will expand to 30 hotels in the resorts of Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia.
According to Prokopenko, the network will be developed via renting or buying hotels, taking them into management, and also through franchising – work under an agreement on holding standards related to service, staff training, guest relations, food, drinks, branding, active leisure, sports, animation, children’s events and sanitary standards.
OTI Hotels & Resorts International will include hotels of various levels. They will operate under the new Seven Seas Resorts & Hotels brand, as well as under the well-established brands Otium Hotels and Xanadu Resort.
In addition, Coral Travel plans to expand the flight program from Kyiv and the regions in the 2020 season, as well as increase its own product list in the most popular directions – Turkey, Egypt, Greece and Spain.
The tour operator also plans the further development of its own two franchise networks, Coral Travel travel agency and Coral Elite Service travel agency. By the end of 2020, the latter would have 350 offices in 90 cities of Ukraine.
CORAL TRAVEL, EGYPT, HOTEL CHAIN, OTI HOLDING, TUNISIA, TURKEY
Ukraine and Turkey are planning to liberalize motor transportation services between the countries at the beginning of 2020, reads a post on the website of the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine following a meeting between Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Krykliy and his Turkish counterpart Mehmet Cahit Turhan in London on Monday. The sides are preparing relevant documents, the ministry’s press service said.
The ministers also praised the countries’ dialogue on cooperation in the spheres of maritime search and rescue and air services.
Turkey showed interest in the Ukrainian An-178 aircraft, this issue was discussed at a meeting of Interior Minister of Ukraine Arsen Avakov and Interior Minister of Turkey Süleyman Soylu.
“Our An-178 aircraft is presented at the modern technology exhibition in Istanbul, which we are honored to attend. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine plans to purchase 13 such aircraft for the State Emergencies Service to eliminate fires and for the National Guard. I hope the Turkish side will pay attention to our An-178,” the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs quoted Avakov as saying.
In turn, the Turkish interior minister praised the An-178 and expressed interest in this aircraft.
“The An-178 is a very good aircraft. In addition, our Mi-17 helicopters are being modernized in Ukraine, six of which we have already received. For us, this is an example of very successful cooperation with you,” Soylu said.
Avakov invited him to visit Ukraine. “I really hope that you will visit Ukraine at the end of the month. We will have large-scale exercises that you should see. In addition, I will show you new modernized models of the Mi-8 helicopter. And Airbus will present the helicopters that they supply for the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine,” he said.
In response, Soylu suggested that he would most likely come to Ukraine.
The multi-purpose transport aircraft An-178 was developed at the Antonov state-owned enterprise, which is part of state-run Ukroboronprom. About 200 companies from 15 countries are involved in production cooperation under the An-178 program.
The flight altitude of the An-178 is 12 km, the range is 5,500 km, and the maximum speed is 825 km/h. The aircraft has a modified fuselage shape, a ramp for loading and unloading oversized cargo and is capable of transporting up to 18 tonnes of cargo, including heavy sea containers. It can land and take off from any airdromes, including unpaved ones.
The An-178 made its first flight on May 7, 2015. In July 2018, Ukroboronprom presented the An-178 at the Farnborough Airshow international aerospace show, where the aircraft performed a demonstration flight.
Ovid North LLC intends to build an Ovid North wind farm with a capacity of 80 MW (Ovidiopol district of Odesa region) in the area north of the existing Ovid Wind farm, according to the website of the unified register of environmental impact assessment. Within the project it is planned to build from 12 to 16 wind turbines with a capacity of 3.6 MW to 5.5 MW each. The height of the towers is from 120 meters to 160 meters. The rotor diameter is from 130 meters to 170 meters.
It is expected that the wind farm will generate 230,000 MWh per year.
At first, the holding specialized in the construction of hydropower plants and thermal power plants and built large energy facilities with a total capacity of about 1.7 GW. In 2000, it reoriented to the construction and operation of its own energy facilities using renewable energy sources. As of 2018, the holding’s portfolio included 79 MW of hydroelectric power stations, 162 MW of geothermal stations, and 373 MW of wind farms.
