Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) is ready to purchase medium-haul aircraft of Ukrainian production, provided they are launched into mass production, chairman of the supervisory board and co-owner of UIA Aron Mayberg has said in an interview with Mind.ua.
“UIA is the only airline in Ukraine that is actively and consistently developing domestic flights. It’s another matter that with the abolition of VAT, the company will be able to more actively increase the fleet for domestic flights. The preliminary plans for next year include replenishment of the fleet with at least two Embraer 195s, and if all will turn out favorably this figure may increase to four,” he said.
According to Mayberg, UIA is interested in buying medium-haul aircraft, the cost of transportation in which in terms of one seat will be $30-40. This will make it possible to sell tickets from $20-22 to $70-80 on a flight.
At the same time, he emphasized that mass production is a prerequisite for the purchase of Ukrainian aircraft by airlines.
“It’s not only a matter of cost. Aircraft need to be mass-produced, and not be made in three individual planes, for which it is not clear where to get pilots, spare parts and how to service them. Serial production is not developed in one day. This is a long and complex process. We really need a medium-haul aircraft with a capacity of 70-100 seats. If Ukraine makes such a successful aircraft, we would buy it,” Mayberg said.
