As Ukraine started rolling back some quarantine measures on May 12, some dared to hope that the ban on foreign air travel may also be lifted soon.
At least three major European airlines have begun selling tickets from Ukraine for flights starting on May 23. But their enthusiasm isn’t supported by government officials, who say that passenger air travel from Ukraine isn’t restarting in the near future.
On May 10, Ukrainian media outlets reported that Czech Airlines, Lufthansa and Wizz Air had begun selling tickets for flights from five major Ukrainian cities — Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, Kharkiv and Zaporizhia — to European destinations starting in late May.
The news came as the government was loosening quarantine measures starting May 12 and allowing parks, hairdressers, outdoor restaurants and cafes, shopping malls, and domestic services to resume operations. This softened quarantine will run until May 22, and will likely be prolonged after that.
Yet there was no indication from the government that planes would be permitted to fly.
On May 11, in an interview with Deutsche Welle, Deputy Prime Minister Vadym Prystaiko said that resuming air travel was part of the fifth and final step of lifting quarantine in Ukraine. Currently, Ukraine is on step one.
The Ministry of Infrastructure, which is responsible for regulating transportation in Ukraine, told the Kyiv Post that it is up to the government to decide about resuming any form of transportation. That decision hasn’t been made yet.
“Any action to sell tickets before the government makes a decision and publishes it is premature,” Oksana Herasymova, the ministry’s press secretary, told the Kyiv Post.
Airlines may be well aware of that, and are selling tickets to generate some revenue as they are waiting out the pandemic.
“Such sales allow them to receive some money from passengers and buy some crucial time,” according to aviation lawyer Andriy Guck. “Globally such sales may generate quite a sum.”
However, one group will likely be allowed to leave: Ukrainian seasonal employees who work abroad. After some back-and-forth and a few questionable statements by Ukrainian officials, the government finally said it will allow them to leave for work.
“We are now talking about the reopening of special flights (for seasonal workers), mainly with (our) partners from the European Union,” said Prystaiko. “There is also an agreement on a certain number of workers in Israel.”
Seasonal workers first
The question of international air travel started to see wide discussion in late April. By then, many Ukrainians who work in the EU countries during the summer months expected to leave Ukraine.
While there were no commercial flights due to the pandemic, countries that needed their labor were ready to order charter flights for Ukrainian workers. But the workers said they ran into trouble with the Ukrainian government blocking their departure.
On April 23, the first charter flight transported nearly 200 Ukrainian seasonal workers from Kyiv to Helsinki. After a 14-day quarantine upon arrival, the passengers would work in Finland’s agricultural sector. However, although Finland requested additional flights for Ukrainian workers, they were never allowed.
“Indeed, there are applications (from foreign countries), but we in Ukraine are guided primarily by concerns for the safety and health of our citizens,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told journalists on April 28.
The next day, Ukraine International Airlines said in a statement that a similar charter flight to London that carried Ukrainian workers had been canceled two hours before its scheduled departure time because the State Aviation Administration wouldn’t allow the plane to take off.
At the same time, several special flights to London for British nationals were allowed to leave Ukraine over the two months of quarantine. Government officials had made it clear in various statements that they planned to keep Ukrainians inside the country.
But now, the Ukrainian government had changed its mind.
In his interview with Deutsche Welle, Prystaiko said that the Ukrainian government is greenlighting charter flights to foreign countries after official requests from their governments.
“Now we are mainly talking about agricultural work because they have a specific calendar, and this forces the governments of other countries to contact us,” said Prystaiko. “In general, we are talking from hundreds to tens of thousands of people from Ukraine.”
According to Prystaiko, Finland alone requested 15,000 Ukrainian workers, who he estimates will require up to 200 flights. He added that Ukrainian authorities will request that the host country provide those people with an official minimum 3-month contract and guaranteed healthcare before it allows Ukrainians to leave.
“If people are traveling to Europe for work, it shouldn’t be two-week, back-and-forth tourism, the import-export of coronavirus,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said during a speech in parliament on May 12.
“We didn’t keep the country closed for two months to bring 100,000-200,000 infected people in every two weeks,” he added.
As of May 13, Finland had only 1,479 active cases of the novel coronavirus, while Ukraine had 12,270 active cases.
Nowhere to go?
For those unwilling to work in the agricultural sector in European countries, a plane seat is a distant dream.
On April 24, the government presented an official five-step plan to lift quarantine restrictions. According to Prystaiko, regular passenger air travel is part of the fifth and final step. It will only be permitted when all other quarantine measures are lifted.
“The Cabinet of Ministers has, so far, extended the quarantine until May 22, but, most likely, based on World Health Organization data, the quarantine will be extended in the future,” Shmyhal said on May 5.
But even if Ukraine were to allow passenger flights, there aren’t many places Ukrainians would be able to travel.
On May 8, the European Commission recommended that EU member states keep the union’s external borders closed for non-EU members until at least June 15.
“Restrictions on free movement and internal border controls will need to be lifted gradually before we can remove restrictions at the external borders and guarantee access to the EU for non-EU residents for non-essential travel,” said Ylva Johansson, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs.
On May 6, during a televised interview with the 1+1 TV channel, Kuleba said that there isn’t an actual date when flights will resume. That means they potentially might not return until early fall.
“Very carefully, during the summer, we will try to restart internal flight connections,” Kuleba said. “There won’t be full-fledged international air traffic during the summer.”
If Ukraine were to open its airports today, Belarus would be the only country in Europe welcoming tourists. In North America, that country would be the United States. While the U.S. banned travelers from the EU and U.K., it never officially banned travel from Ukraine.
