On June 5, the Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry announced international airspace won’t be opened up with the European Union for the second time.
Designed to allow any European-based airline to fly from anywhere within the European Union to any city within Ukraine and vice versa, the ministry’s news release said the treaty, known commonly as the Open Skies Agreement, was postponed because Spain and the United Kingdom had not agreed on the territorial definition of Gibraltar.
Citing a “well-informed source in the European Commission,” Interfax Ukraine reported that the European Commission hopes to sign the agreement on June 27 along with a landmark free-trade deal within the EU Association Agreement.
This is the second time in three months that the agreement has been postponed. On March 12, the Infrastructure Ministry announced the postponement, also citing a definitional dispute about the territory included in the agreement.
In theory, and based on the results of other Open Sky agreements, passenger volumes would increase, airfares would decline, flight frequencies would rise and tourism would be boosted.
The European Commission started talks on the deal with Ukraine in 2007 after receiving a mandate the previous year. Discussions, however, didn’t pick up steam until last November at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, when Ukraine and the EU initialed the agreement. Experts believe that the agreement will be ratified and enter into force in summer 2015.
According to Igor Gavrilov, the head of the corporate department of Alekseev, Boyarchukov & Partners, the Open Skies Agreement will “create a common aviation area which will be based on identical rules in the areas of safety, security, air traffic management, environment, consumer protection, computer reservation systems and others.”
Gavrilov thinks the agreement will lead to greater competition among airlines, which will benefit Ukrainian and European travelers by driving down the cost of airfare.
“The cost of air tickets will be reduced…Moreover, boosted competition between EU and Ukrainian airlines, consumer protection, safety, security and the other regulations stipulated by the agreement will also enhance safety and security standards. Thus, users of air transport will also get more advanced protection of their consumer rights and their safety,” says Gavrilov.
Ukrainian and EU airlines will also reap rewards from the agreement.
Gavrilov expects that “EU airlines will be able to operate direct flights to Ukraine and vice versa. Ukrainian airlines will have the right to operate flights to the EU provided that the service serves also a point in Ukraine.” Similarly, EU airlines will be able to operate flights to Ukraine, as well as domestic flights inside the country.
“So it is clear,” Gavrilov says, “that both Ukraine and the EU will benefit from cooperation under the agreement when it is signed.”
Ukrainian air traffic should grow considerably after the agreement is signed. Since 1991, Ukrainian air traffic has increased nearly fivefold. According to the Ukrainian State Air Traffic Services Enterprise, more than 534,000 flights traveled through Ukrainian airports in 2013, up from just 120,500 in 1993.
Signing the agreement will likely give a boost to the Ukrainian economy as a whole. Vadim Samoilenko, an expert on aviation law at Asters Law Firm, told the Kyiv Post in March that his firm expects “that OSA will promote the free movement of persons and goods, [and] expand commercial opportunities.”
In a news release issued by the European Commission after the agreement was initialed on November 28, the EU commissioner for mobility and transport called the agreement “an important stepping stone for our strategy to achieve closer cooperation between the EU and its neighbors, particularly in the context of the Eastern Partnership.”
The EU has signed similar comprehensive aviation agreements with other neighboring countries, including Morocco, Georgia, Israel, the Western Balkans, Moldova, and Jordan.
