Irish low-cost airline Ryanair is adding Ukraine to its network of 33 countries and launching introductory ticket prices as low as 20 euros until midnight March 16.
At a March 15 press conference in Kyiv, Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer David O’Brien and Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan announced 15 weekly flights from Kyiv Boryspil International Airport to London, Manchester, Stockholm and Eindhoven and 16 weekly flights from Lviv airport to London, Berlin, Budapest, Krakow, Wroclaw, Memmingen and Eindhoven.
The flights are scheduled to start operating on Oct. 30.
“We recognize that there’s a great potential for air traffic world in Ukraine,” O’Brien said at the press conference, “Kyiv has approximately 66 international European routes, while Dublin, which is on the other extremity of Europe, has 138. You can see the potential.”
Ryanair is the largest and cheapest airline in Europe, offering 200 destinations around Europe. It is the most popular airline in Spain, Italy, Poland, Ireland and Central and Eastern Europe and close to becoming the top one in Great Britain, Greece and Portugal.
O’Brien said he does not see competition in Ukraine as “there is only one low-cost airline in Europe,” with Easyjet, “the nearest one to us” being 25 percent more expensive. He also believes flights within Europe should be direct. A lot of flights in Ukraine currently “have stopovers in Istanbul, Frankfurt or Warsaw.”
Ryanair hopes to carry 510,000 passengers per year and employ 387 people.
Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer David O’Brien (L) and Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan present four new Ryanair routes from Kyiv Boryspil International Airport to Europe during the press conference on March 15 in Kyiv. (Maria Romanenko)
Talks between Ryanair and Ukraine started in 2011. The planes will be based outside of Ukraine for now. More destinations will also be added, with Ryanair also looking at the possibility of working with Ukrainian International Airlines for long-haul flights.
“I am very grateful to Ryanair who, despite all the turbulences, believes in Ukraine, perhaps more than some Ukrainians do,” Omelyan said, “We clearly and consistently support a free and effective market, where all the companies can compete between each other and offer their best products for customers.”
