Ukraine’s Ministry of Infrastructure is in talks with two more low-cost airlines in addition to SkyUp on their operation on the Ukrainian market, Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has said.
“We started negotiations with three companies at the beginning of the year. I did not want to announce that there might be three of them, so we cautiously talked about one, which was negotiated. It announced about itself this year. Talks with the other two are underway. There is an 80 percent probability that they will enter the Ukrainian market next year,” Omelyan said on Espreso.TV on December 26.
He stressed that one of the companies – SkyUp – will be wholly Ukrainian, the others will have a Ukrainian controlling stake.
“Now we are talking about the company that has already been formed – SkyUp. This is 100 percent Ukrainian private capital. The other two will be with 49 percent of foreign capital and 51 percent of Ukrainian so that they can conduct domestic Ukrainian flights. They are carefully analyzing the market – these are significant investment injections and they should feel 100 percent protected and trust the state,” Omelyan said.
Yet, he said, none of the low-cost airlines will be given any special conditions in the Ukrainian market.
“It is important for us that it is not only domestic but also international transportation by air in the format of free competition. We do not want to create preferences or special conditions for anyone – the conditions will be the same for everyone. There should be competition,” the minister said.
As was reported, newly created SkyUp will start operations from April 2018. During its first year, it will carry out international charter flights, and launch regular domestic and international routes.
Charter flights in 2018 will be carried out from Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv and Odesa and other cities of Ukraine to 16 destinations. Among them are Antalya, Bodrum, Dalaman, Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada, Tivat, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife, Alicante, Tirana, Rimini, Burgas, Varna, Larnaca, Dubai.
Domestic flights will be launched in late May – early June, and at the first stage, they will be performed from Odesa to Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv.
International scheduled flights in 2018 are planned to be performed from Kyiv to Barcelona, Dubai and Larnaca.
