SkyUp Airlines, Azur Air Ukraine, Windrose and Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) received more than UAH 60.7 million in compensation from the state for returning citizens to their homeland in the spring of 2020, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine reported on your Facebook page on Friday.
“Ukrainian air carriers were reimbursed more than UAH 60.7 million for the implementation of irregular international flights in the spring of 2020. The peculiarity of these flights was that they departed from Ukraine without passengers – that is, without commercial loading. The main task then was to return Ukrainian citizens home to conditions when countries around the world introduced a tough lockdown. I am very grateful to the Ukrainian airlines for the fact that they were able to respond to global challenges as quickly as possible,” Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov said.
According to him, in such critical situations, the state does not have the necessary flexibility to make quick decisions to respond to such threats.
“This is one of the clearest examples of why Ukraine needs the state air carrier Ukraine National Airlines in the modern world,” he added.
The new Ukrainian airline Air Ocean Airlines, on Saturday, October 30, on An-148 aircraft operated its first flight on the route Kyiv-Mykolaiv, according to the Facebook page of the state-owned enterprise Antonov.
Antonov notes that Air Ocean Airlines was founded in September 2020, its main activity is regular and charter flights in Ukraine and abroad on An-148 and An-158 aircraft.
“We are planning to start flights with duration of 2-2.5 hours, which, according to our estimates, will be the most economically profitable,” Viacheslav Heriha, executive director of the airline, is quoted as saying.
Today, the Air Ocean Airlines fleet consists of two An-148 aircraft. According to the state-owned enterprise, the supply of one more aircraft is planned by the end of this year. During the first and second quarters of 2022, three more aircraft will be supplied. In total, the company plans to operate up to ten aircraft of this type. They are owned by Cyprus Aircraft Leasing 2 (CAL) LTD and transferred to the airline in accordance with lease agreements.
Air Ocean Airlines has already launched its website but it is currently undergoing technical work.
The Ukrainian state-owned airline, which is scheduled to be created in 2022, will provide both internal and international flights, including long-haul flights.
“The state-owned airline must provide regional communication for connecting flights with Kyiv, which is why we have started to develop airports in the regions. These are also flights to Europe, transatlantic flights and long-haul flights to China, Asia,” Deputy Head of the President’s Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko told Interfax-Ukraine in an exclusive interview.
He also said that negotiations on the creation of internal airline are already underway both with foreign leaders of the aviation industry and with Ukrainian specialists.
“We want to launch An-148 to regional and neighboring countries. Long-haul traffic is operated by leasing Boeing or Airbus. There are already real miscalculations, including its [state-owned airline] profitability. Our plans do not include annual subsidies for this campaign, it should generate income,” the deputy head of the President’s Office said.
He also said if Ukrainian citizens are in another country, as in the situation with COVID-19, and cannot leave it, this airline will take them home.
“In addition, the termination of air transit through Belarus can potentially increase our revenues. This, by the way, also applies to land transit. Our tax and transport committees of the [Verkhovna] Rada have ideas on introducing taxes on transit transport, which would give us an opportunity to earn money,” Tymoshenko said.
The new Ukrainian airline Bees Airline in April-June launches regular direct flights from Kyiv to Tbilisi, Batumi and Yerevan, as well as from Odesa to Yerevan.
According to the press service of Kyiv Sikorsky International Airport, in particular, Kyiv-Tbilisi-Kyiv flights will be launched from April 30 and will be operated on Tuesdays and Fridays, and from June 6 additionally on Sundays.
Kyiv-Batumi-Kyiv flights will be operated from June 9 on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
Kyiv-Yerevan-Kyiv flights will be launched from April 29 on Mondays and Thursdays.
Odesa-Yerevan-Odesa flights will start from June 14 on Mondays and Fridays.
In addition to Bees Airline, UIA and SkyUp also operate direct flights from Kyiv to Tbilisi, and SkyUp to Batumi. UIA also operates direct flights from Kyiv to Yerevan.
As reported, the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine issued an operator certificate to Bees Airline on March 12, 2021. Later, the regulator allowed the company to operate flights on 31 routes – 15 regular and 16 charter.
Ukrainian airlines in January-August 2019 transported around 9.226 million passengers, which was 10.7% more than a year ago, according to the State Aviation Service of Ukraine. This figure also takes into account the segment of international passenger traffic, which amounted to 8.4 million passengers January-August 2019 (an increase of 10.9%).
In January-August 2019, Ukrainian airlines operated 69,300 commercial flights (an increase of 3.3% compared to the same period last year), including 58,500 international (an increase of 3.7%).
Passenger traffic through Ukrainian airports increased 19.4% and amounted to 16.08 million people, including international traffic – by 20.7%, amounting to 14.5 million people.
Ukrainian airlines in June 2019 serviced 73.9% of flights of the total number of flights serviced at Ukrainian airports within the 15 minute deviation from the timetable, which is 10.5 percentage points (p.p.) worse than the figure for May 2019 (84.4%), according to a posting on the website of the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine.
According to the ministry, in June, Ukrainian airlines serviced 5,335 flights.
The punctuality of foreign airlines in June compared with May decreased to 77.4% from 82.8%, while the number of flights totaled 3,122.
Of the Ukrainian airlines that made more than 50 flights a month in June, Motor Sich remains the most punctual, with 93.7% and the number of flights 270.
Windrose is second with 88.6% and with the number of 642.
Punctuality of Ukraine’s largest airline in the market – Ukraine International Airlines – was 78%, while the number of flights serviced was 3,148.
The indicators in May for Bukovyna and Azur Air Ukraine were 57.8% and 50.7% with 206 and 420 flights respectively.
Alitalia, Aigle Azur, Aegean Airlines, Iraqi Airways, Bulgaria Air and Tarom were ranked the top of the June punctuality rating among foreign airlines with the 100% punctuality, the number of their flights was from three to 30 per month.
Wizz Air Hungary had the best performance among low cost airlines – 82.4% with 557 flights. Pegasus Airlines is second with 82.2% and 118 flights. The figure of Irish Ryanair was 76.5% with 272 flights.
