When Irish low-cost airline Ryanair revealed last year that it was cancelling plans to enter the Ukrainian market, it sparked a wave of anger and disappointment among Ukrainians. Many felt that corruption and entrenched business interest were limiting their country’s possibilities.
Now, Ryanair has announced that it will introduce 15 new routes between Ukraine and cities in Europe. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary unveiled the agreement at a March 23 press briefing at Kyiv’s Boryspil International Airport.
Flights will begin in October and will service Boryspil and Lviv’s Danylo Halytskyi International Airport, according to a statement on Ryanair’s website. Ukraine will become the company’s 36th destination.
Thirty-two weekly flights will take passengers from Kyiv to Bratislava, Slovakia; Warsaw’s Modlin airport, Gdansk, Krakow, Poznan, and Wroclaw in Poland; Vilnius, Lithuania; and London, England’s Stansted airport.
Another 14 weekly flights will take passengers from Lviv to Dusseldorf, Germany; London’s Stansted airport; Memmingen, Germany; Warsaw’s Modlin airport, and Krakow.
The company anticipates shuttling 800 thousand passengers annually between the two Ukrainian cities and the European cities.
Ryanair’s entry into the Ukrainian market will be viewed as a victory for Ukrainian travellers. In June, the European Union eliminated visas for Ukrainian citizens visiting the Schengen area for a period of up to 90 days. However, for many Ukrainians, travel to Europe has remained prohibitively expensive. Low-costers like Ryanair provide Ukrainians with an affordable means to travel.
Negotiations with Ryanair began over five years ago, but only picked up the pace after Ukraine’s 2014 Euromaidan revolution, according to Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan. In March 2017, the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure announced that the airline would finally be entering the Ukrainian market.
However, in July 2017, Ryanair backed out of its agreement with Ukraine, stating that Boryspil airport had failed to meet the company’s conditions. Many believed that Ukrainian International Airlines (MAU), the country’s flagship carrier, had blocked Ryanair’s entry into the market to protect its own interests.
Ryanair isn’t the only low-cost carrier expanding into Ukraine. Earlier this month, Hungary’s WizzAir announced that it would be launching 16 new flights to three Ukrainian cities: Kyiv, Lviv, and Kharkiv.
