Walking through the cramped 1950s terminal at Zhulyany airport, it is hard to imagine yourself in a sleek, airy hall full of duty-free stores.
But by next year this Soviet relic, just 20 minutes by car from downtown Kyiv, could be transformed into a modern airport through a Hr 500 million ($62.5
million) redevelopment, recently revealed plans show.
Passenger numbers could jump to 1.5 million every year and take a sizeable chunk of traffic out of Kyiv’s main airport, Boryspil, airport officials said.
They hope to attract more airlines to complement Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air, which flies routes to Spain, Poland, the U.K. and within Ukraine.
“It’s in Kyiv, almost in the center, and it has excellent transport links: There is a trolleybus, a minibus, and the railway station is really close,” said Oleh Petrovsky, first deputy director of Kyiv Airport, Zhulyany’s official name. He said a taxi will cost a fraction of the average Hr 160 travelers pay to get from Boryspil to downtown Kyiv.
It will not take much to improve on the current services offered by the small airport.
Since Wizz Air moved its flights from Boryspil, the number of passengers has surged from 15,000 in 2010 to 32,000 in one month last August.
Passengers now cram the terminal, which has just a few small vending machines and kiosks selling food and drinks. To go through to departures, travelers have to go outside and queue at passport control in another building. Anyone picking up arriving passengers has to wait outside while they grab their baggage, which is tossed onto metal racks.
Apart from Wizz Air, the airport is home to small air carriers Khors and Motor Sich, and also services private airlines.
Redevelopment has already begun and is expected to be completed before next summer’s Euro 2012 soccer tournament, which Ukraine is co-hosting along with Poland.
Petrovsky said the airport hopes to attract two low-cost airlines servicing flights to Arab countries, and is in negotiations with two European airlines, which he declined to name as there is no agreement yet.
The project’s investor, Master-Avia, secured a 49-year lease on the site from the city in the summer of 2010, but could not start construction because of court challenges to the deal. One of the company’s owners is Yuriy Ivaniushchenko, a deputy from the Party of the Regions who is reportedly close to President Viktor Yanukovych. Korrespondent magazine rated Ivaniushchenko the nation’s second most influential person in its recent rankings.
The investors are planning to build a three-storied terminal of 14,000 square meters in total, capable of handling 320 departing passengers, and the same number of arrivals per hour, Petrovsky said. The airport plans to handle 1.5 million passengers per year, with each passenger paying from $10 to $30.
But this won’t cover the cost of running the airport, according to Vitaliy Boyko, managing partner of the Ukrainian Trade Guild, whose job is to contract shops and services that would like to operate in the new terminal.
Filipp Mizonov, project manager of Kyiv Airport, said major foreign airports get up to 70 percent of their income from commercial activities.
“There will be a large duty-free zone after passport control. The rest of the areas will have plenty of consumer goods – drugstores, souvenir shops, press, banks and currency exchanges, fast food and lots of restaurants,” Boyko said.
“We’re trying to find brands that traditionally work in airports, to make sure that a foreign tourist or businessman sees the usual set in the airport,” he added. “Costa Coffee gives people pleasant memories because you have seen it in Amsterdam or London. The same goes for Nordsee [a seafood restaurant chain]. We find them and make agreements with them.”
Apart from the international terminal, Master-Avia plans to build a business terminal, a hotel, and reconstruct the existing building, which will continue to service domestic flights. Petrovsky said extra hangars will be built to service Boeing and Airbus planes, as well as small jets.
Kyiv Post staff writer Maria Shamota can be reached at [email protected].
