SkyUp Airlines will launch flights on the Odessa-Thessaloniki (Greece)-Odessa route from July 6.
According to the press service of the company, they will be performed once a week on Tuesdays.
There are currently no direct flights from Odessa to Thessaloniki.
SkyUp Airlines (Kyiv) has launched charter flights from Lviv to Al-Qassim (Saudi Arabia), the company’s press service said on Tuesday.
“On 20 June, Lviv International Airport welcomed the first SkyUp charter aircraft from Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia. It is expected that this flight will launch a number of planned flights by the airline from the Arabian Gulf countries to Ukraine,” the report said.
According to Head of the State Agency for Tourism Development Maryana Oleskiv, who is cited by SkyUp, the countries of the Arabian Gulf, together with the Central Asia region, are priority areas for the development of inbound tourism in Ukraine.
In addition, on June 20, SkyUp launched regular direct flights from Kyiv to Pula (Croatia). They will be operated on Thursdays and Sundays.
From June 23, the airline will also launch flights from Kyiv to Split, Croatia (flights will be operated on Wednesdays and Saturdays), and from June 25 – to Dubrovnik (flights will be operated on Fridays).
Direct flights to Pula are also operated by Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) and Windrose Airlines, and to Split – by UIA.
As reported, Flynas Airlines (Saudi Arabia) on June 11 launched its first flight from Kyiv to Riyadh. Prior to that, Ukraine did not have regular direct flights with Saudi Arabia.
SkyUp (Kiev) has expanded its fleet with a medium-haul Boeing 737-900ER aircraft, increasing its fleet of aircraft to 12 units.
According to the press service of the company, the new aircraft is designed for 215 passengers and will operate flights on all routes in the airline’s schedule. This is the fourth aircraft of this model in its fleet.
“The aircraft, produced in 2008, arrived in Ukraine in the branded SkyUp livery. Also on board are seats of the British brand Acro, which provide more space between the rows for a convenient flight of passengers, and the wings are equipped with split winglets Split Scimitar to save fuel and improve aerodynamics,” the report says.
The aircraft received the state registration number UR-SQL.
Currently, along with the new aircraft, the SkyUp Airlines fleet includes 12 medium-haul aircraft: two Boeing 737-700 NGs with 149 seats, six Boeing 737-800 NGs with 189 seats, four Boeing 737-900 ERs with 215 seats.
By the end of summer, the company plans to replenish its fleet with one more aircraft.
SkyUp (Kyiv) in May 2021 performed 1,419 flights and carried 209,924 passengers, the airline said in a press release.
According to the airline’s internal statistics, in May SkyUp set an absolute record for the number of flights performed for the entire period of the company’s activity, completing 1,419 flights. Of these, 870 are charter flights, 519 are regular, as well as 30 are positional and training flights.
The daily number of SkyUp flights performed in May reached 60 flights.
The airline carried 209,924 passengers on passenger flights: by charters – 152,835 people, by regular flights – 57,089 passengers.
In addition, SkyUp transported 41,459 tonnes of cargo on passenger flights.
The most popular destinations among SkyUp passengers in May on charter flights were Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt, 30,770 people), Antalya (Turkey, 26,160 people), Hurghada (Egypt, 12,410 people).
The passengers of regular flights most often chose Istanbul (Turkey, 6,965 people), Tbilisi (Georgia, 6,046 people), Batumi (Georgia, 4,222 people).
In May, the airline launched 13 domestic and international routes: from Kyiv to Bodrum, Izmir and Odesa; from Odesa to Batumi, Kharkiv and Lviv; from Lviv to Tirana; from Kharkiv to Larnaca, Tivat and Tirana; from Zaporizhia to Istanbul, Batumi and Tirana.
SkyUp also announced the start in June of a flight program from Odesa to the Greek island of Crete, from Zaporizhia and Lviv to Tivat (Montenegro).
By decision No. 715 dated May 6, the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine canceled the rights of SkyUp to fly on 33 routes from Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv to a number of countries. According to the document on the State Aviation Administration’s website, the flight rights were revoked based on the airline’s statement.
According to the regulator, SkyUp canceled flights from Kyiv to Poprad, Nuremberg, Hannover, Athens, Stockholm, Warsaw, Memmingen, Amman, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Cologne, Ljubljana, Copenhagen, Bratislava, Brno, Ostrava and Gdansk.
SkyUp will not fly from Lviv to Munich, Stuttgart, Bratislava, Amsterdam and Prague.
SkyUp also waived the rights to flights from Odesa to Munich, Athens, Larnaca and Amsterdam; from Zaporizhia – to Berlin, Stuttgart, Tel Aviv and Prague; and besides, from Kharkiv to Bratislava, Tel Aviv and Prague.
By another decision No. 719 dated May 6, the State Aviation Administration also, on the basis of the airline’s appeal, reduced the possible frequency of SkyUp flights on flights from Kyiv to Yerevan, Alicante, Catania, Rimini, Bologna, Palma de Mallorca.
At the same time, in April SkyUp Airlines carried 138,160 passengers, operating 836 passenger flights, which is 128 flights more than a month earlier.
SkyUp (Kyiv) will deny foreign passengers boarding a flight to Ukraine if they do not have a negative PCR test for coronavirus (COVID-19).
“Checking a negative result of a PCR test in foreign citizens is carried out at the check-in counter for a flight or when boarding in case of on-line check-in. Accordingly, in the absence of it such a passenger will be denied check-in or boarding a flight,” the airline told Interfax-Ukraine.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine determined a negative result of PCR testing for COVID-19 as a condition of entry into the country.
According to his decision, visitors will be required to provide a negative PCR test result, which was carried out no more than 72 hours before crossing the state border.
