Ryanair has pulled out of plans to fly to Ukraine. It blamed the decision on “Kiev airport’s failure to honour a growth agreement reached at the Ministry of Infrastructure with airport officials and the current Airport Director General in March”.
Ryanair had been due to fly from Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden to Kiev and Lviv airports from October. But it claimed that Kiev airport has “chosen to protect high fare airlines (including Ukraine International Airlines) and deprive Ukrainian consumers/visitors access to Europe’s lowest air fares and widest route network. As a result, Ryanair has no choice but to cancel four new Kiev routes and seven new Lviv routes, which will result in the loss of over 500,000 passengers and 400 jobs”.
David O’Brien CCO of Ryanair
The head of Kiev’s Boryspil Airport, Pavlo Riabikin, told local media that Ryanair is setting requirements for flights to Kiev which do not comply with the Ukrainian legislation. Ryanair said it will email who have booked flights and refund them. It will transfer capacity to Germany, Israel and Poland.
Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer, David O’Brien, said: “We regret that Kiev Airport has demonstrated that Ukraine is not yet a sufficiently mature or reliable business location to invest valuable Ryanair aircraft capacity. Kiev Airport’s failure to honour commitments will result in the loss of over 500,000 customers and 400 airport jobs in the first year alone, which would have provided a significant boost to the Ukrainian economy. We regret also that Lviv Airport has fallen victim to Kiev Airport’s decision.”
