A race appears to be on between the country’s two major low-cost airlines.
Both Ireland’s Ryanair and Hungarian company Wizzair have now announced new flights from Ukraine to Europe: Ryanair is to start direct flights to five new destinations from Kyiv, while Wizzair is expanding its regional presence, connecting Kharkiv to London and Vienna, and Lviv to Frankfurt.
David O’Brien, the chief commercial officer of Ryanair, said during a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Nov. 20 that the company would increase its presence in Ukraine by investing $1.5 billion and launching new flights from Kyiv.
Later the same day, Ryanair revealed the five new destinations: Dublin, Ireland, Manchester, the UK, Sofia, Bulgaria, Athens, Greece, and Paphos, Cyprus.
Earlier Wizzair, the other major low-cost carrier operating in Ukraine, said on Nov. 14 that the company planned to increase its regional presence. Flights from Kharkiv to Vienna will be available from Nov. 25, while scheduled flights to London began on Nov. 13. Direct flights from Lviv to Frankfurt will be available from Dec. 2. The average cost for these flights is around 20-30 euros.
After meeting with Poroshenko, O’Brien said his company would further lower ticket prices as well, promising tickets for as little as 5 euros (Hr 160). Wizzair soon responded by saying it wanted to revive the company’s subsidiary, Wizzair Ukraine, by the end of 2019, investing an additional $2.5 billion in the project.
Wizzair Ukraine was closed in 2015, as Ukraine’s economy nosedived and the value of Ukraine’s national currency, the hryvnia, plunged.
In a press release, Wizzair promised that if the company is revived, it would increase the airline’s staff in Ukraine by 6,000 people, and an additional 20 new planes would be allocated to Ukraine routes.
Competition has heated up on the air market in Ukraine since the summer of 2017, when Ukrainians gained visa-free travel to the Schengen Area, which includes most EU countries. Airlines are now circling the market, with both Wizzair and Ryanair apparently seeing potential for further expansion: According to Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan, Ryanair is also considering beginning operations from the southeastern Ukrainian city of Kherson.
Ryanair began operating from Ukraine in September. The company initially had difficulties touching down in the country, with the first attempt failing back in 2017 after the company couldn’t agree on conditions with Ukraine’s largest airport, Kyiv Boryspil International Airport.
Ukraine has seen a rapid increase in passenger volume with the introduction of visa-free travel and the stabilization of the economy, with domestic airports carrying 15.8 million passengers in the first three quarters of 2018 – a 26 percent increase on last year’s figures.
Omelyan, speaking on Nov. 19, said he expects there to be a record-breaking number of 20 million passengers by the end of the year.
He also said that the government is planning to invest Hr 1 billion ($35.7 million) in the construction of a new airport near the town of Solone, 30 kilometers from Dnipro and 50 kilometers from Zaporizhzhia.
If approved, construction will begin in 2019.
