Irish low-cost airline Ryanair canceled its plans to fly to Ukraine, according to the company’s July 10 statement.
The low-cost airline said “regrettably” Kyiv Boryspil International Airport has chosen to protect high fare airlines and, as a result, Ryanair will cancel four new Kyiv routes and seven new Lviv routes. The company said this will result in the loss of over 500,000 passengers and 400 jobs.
The head of Boryspil Airport, Pavlo Riabikin, said earlier that Ryanair is setting requirements for flights to Kyiv which do not comply with the Ukrainian legislation.
Ryanair’s March announcement to enter Ukraine with flights to Lviv and Kyiv was a true celebration for many Ukrainians who would have used cheap offers from the Europe’s biggest low-cost airline after the visa-free regime with the European Union came in force.
According to Ryanair CEO David O’Brien, it was planned to launch flights from Kyiv to Eindhoven, London, Manchester and Stockholm. In general, 15 flights per week were planned on these directions. The company also planned to launch flights from Lviv to London, Eindhoven, Berlin and Memmingen, Krakow, Wroclaw, and Budapest.
However, the carrier halted sales of tickets for flights to Ukraine in the afternoon of July 10.
Ukraine would have been the 34th country in Ryanair’s network.
