The Kharkiv international airport is holding the negotiations with Ireland’s low cost airline Ryanair on the launch of flights to Germany, Poland and the Mediterranean countries, Commercial Director of the airport Vladyslav Illin has said in an interview with the V Otpusk publication. “Regarding negotiations with Ryanair, the priority is to start flights to Germany and Poland. Kharkiv, as a market for new destinations, is somewhat similar to Kyiv and to some extent to Lviv in terms of business and family ties with these countries,” he said.
Also, according to Illin, among the countries where Ryanair could fly from Kharkiv, apart from Germany and Poland, I would like to see the Baltic states.
“I think that there is a great potential for the development of flights to Lithuania and Latvia. Passengers from Kharkiv fly less to Estonia. We also discuss flights to the Mediterranean countries with Ryanair. But these plans can only be realized from summer 2020. Indeed, flights to Germany and Poland are less subject to seasonality, “- he said.
At the same time, Illin said that the chance that Ryanair will fly from Kharkiv in the summer time is not great, since almost all aircraft have already used in loading the summer schedule of the airline.
Also, according to the commercial director of the Kharkiv airport, this year the Hungarian low-cost Wizz Air also plans to open new destinations from Kharkiv.
“Also, as in the case of Ryanair, we are discussing with Wizz Air, first of all, the opening of new flights to Germany. In general, in negotiations with Ryanair and Wizz Air, we consider it a priority to open new flights to Germany,” he said.
The Irish low-cost air carrier Ryanair from October 2019 will open flights from Kyiv to Madrid.
According to the airline’s press release, flights on the Kyiv-Madrid route will be operated four times a week as part of the Ryanair Kyiv Winter 2019 extended schedule, which will be launched shortly.
“The full schedule of Ryanair Kyiv Winter 2019 will be made public soon,” the airline said.
Flights will be carried out from Boryspil International Airport.
As reported, Ryanair announced that in 2019 it plans to open five new flights from Ukraine to Athens (Greece), Dublin (Ireland), Manchester (the United Kingdom), Sofia (Bulgaria), and Paphos (Cyprus) twice a week.
Ireland’s low cost airline Ryanair is considering Ukraine as the top three promising countries for development of an IT hub in 2019, Ryanair Chief Commercial Officer David O’Brien said at a press conference in the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukrainey. The airline’s engineer is visiting several cities of Ukraine, he said. The airline is mulling a possibility of opening the IT center in Ukraine in the future, and when reaching the critical mass for flights we would consider a possibility of opening the plane maintenance facilities in the country, he said.
O’Brien said that the negotiations are being held with airports of Odesa, Kherson and Kharkiv. He said that Ryanair is discussing a possibility of launching flights from regional airports of Ukraine, but the issue could be solved in several years. “We will receive 40 or 50 planes in winter 2019 and then we will talk about new cities in Ukraine,” he said.
Earlier, at a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, O’Brien said that the result of the previous meeting with the head of state was the introduction of the position of Chief Technology Officer by Ryanair together with the software lab. He expressed hope that the fourth office of this lab will be established in Ukraine. As reported, Ryanair plans to invest $1.5 billion in Ukraine by 2023, expanding the fleet to 15 planes. Ryanair offers flights from Kyiv to six cities in Poland, one destination in Germany, Spain, Lithuania, Slovakia, the U.K. and Sweden, as well as two destinations from Lviv to Germany and Poland, one to the U.K.
Ireland’s low-cost airline Ryanair plans to invest $1.5 billion in Ukraine in three or five years, expanding its fleet to 15 planes and passenger traffic to 5 million people, Ryanair Chief Commercial Officer David O’Brien said at a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kyiv on Tuesday.
The airline has hopes that the planes will be placed on the territory of Ukraine and that it will fly from Ukraine as from own base of operations, he said.
O’Brien also said that now the main problem related to the increase in the number of flights of the airline to Ukraine is the protective policy of the European Union (EU) from Germany, France, Italy and Belgium. He said that as soon as this obstacle is overcome, the airline will increase the number of flights from/to Ukraine.
He also said that Ryanair plans to increase the number of flight from Kyiv and boost passenger flow by summer 2019.
As reported, referring to the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine, Ryanair is studying a possibility of creating a servicing center at the Boryspil airport (Kyiv).
Ryanair offers flights from Kyiv to six cities in Poland, one destination in Germany, Spain, Lithuania, Slovakia, the UK and Sweden, as well as two destinations from Lviv to Germany and Poland, one to the U.K.
The Irish low cost air carrier Ryanair could start operating flights from Italy to Ukraine as early as 2019, chief commercial officer of the company David O’Brien has said at a conference at the Ministry of Infrastructure. “In Italy, we fly from Milan and Pisa. But the Italian government provided certain advantages to the airline, which has only two flights. We filed a lawsuit and won the case, so maybe we will also fly from Italy to Ukraine,” he said.
Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan, in turn, noted that Ukraine plans to provide all the necessary support for the launch of flights by the Irish low cost airline on the direction Ukraine-Italy. “I believe that Ryanair will be able to fly from Italy next year,” the minister said.
He also said that the Ministry of Infrastructure had sent a corresponding letter to the Italian government, moreover, negotiations with the Italian Transport Minister were scheduled for the near future, during which Omelyan plans to raise the issue of planning flights in the Ukrainian direction.
Omelyan also noted that he expects the final settlement of Open Skies Agreement issues with the European Union in the first half of 2019.
Ryanair, the largest European low cost air carrier, is considering the possibility of establishing a company in Ukraine to create IT products, Yulia Kovaliv, the head of the National Investment Council’s office, said on the air of Radio NV. “One of the ideas we discussed with the Ryanair leadership is to establish an internal company in Ukraine, which develops all IT products for the low cost carrier,” she said. Kovaliv also noted that in the near future the company plans to start domestic flights in Ukraine.
“If we are talking about the launch of domestic flights by the carrier in the country, then, again, the level of airport charges is important, but all companies understand that the cheaper the ticket is, the faster the airline will become competitive,” she said.
As reported, Ryanair began flights to Ukraine on the route Berlin-Kyiv-Berlin from September 3. Ryanair offers flights from Kyiv to six cities in Poland, one destination in Germany, Spain, Lithuania, Slovakia, the UK and Sweden, as well as two destinations from Lviv to Germany and Poland, one to the UK. Ryanair (Ireland) is the largest low cost airline in Europe.
