You're reading: Ryanair: UIA claims against Ryanair, Infrastructure ministry groundless

Ireland’s Ryanair, a leading European low cost airline, has said that filing of claims by Ukraine International Airlines (UIA, Kyiv) seeking to declare the memorandum signed by the Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry and Ryanair are groundless legal threats.

Ryanair said in a press release issued on August 18 that UIA threatened to file a lawsuit against the airline, the Infrastructure Ministry and Lviv airport over the alleged loss of income after UIA is forced to compete with Ryanair.

Last month Ryanair announced that “Europe’s No.1 airline has cancelled its planned entry into Ukraine following Kyiv airport’s failure to honor a growth agreement reached at the Ministry of Infrastructure with airport officials, which deprives Ukrainian consumers/visitors access to Europe’s lowest air fares and widest route network,” Ryanair said in a press release.

Ryanair said that these claims of UIA are intended to block entry of low cost airlines to Ukraine, as they do not want to compete with Ryanair.

This ridiculous claim of UIA shows that they would not stop to hinder Ukrainian consumers and visitors to use cheap flights that Ryanair services in 33 other countries, Ryanair Chief Commercial Officer David O’Brien said. Instead of trying to compete with Ryaniar, UIA uses false and groundless legal threats to keep their high tariffs for flights and the ineffective model, he said.

He said that the airline welcomes the fact that even without Ryanair’s entry to the market expensive UIA had to cut their prices and Ukrainian consumers and tourists would benefit from this.

The airline keeps hope that Ukraine once in the future would be able to fully use access to the widest route network and low tariffs that only Ryanair could offer, he said.