Atlasjet Ukraine To Apply For Permits To Operate Charter Flights From Lvov, Kiev, And Odessa

The Atlasjet Ukraine airline company, a subsidiary of the Turkish carrier Atlasjet, intends to apply to the State Aviation Service for permits to operate charter flights from Lvov, Kiev, and Odessa on 15 April. This was reported by the Interfax Ukraine news agency, which cited the press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure.

The State Aviation Service is expected to process the applications as quickly as possible, the ministry said.

The airline plans to operate charter flights to popular resorts in Turkey, Montenegro, and Egypt.

As reported, Atlasjet Ukraine planned to launch regular flights from/to Ukraine on 15 September 2014: domestic flights from Kiev to Lvov and Odessa and international flights from Kiev, Lvov, Kharkov, and Odessa to Istanbul, as well as Odessa-Tel Aviv flights. With the support of its parent company – the Turkish Airlines – the aircraft fleet of Altasjet Ukraine was expected to increase to 15 new Airbus 320 airplanes.

However, Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Infrastructure, demanding return of its right to perform 16 flights per week on the Kiev-Istanbul (Turkey) route and seven weekly flights on the Odessa-Tel Aviv route because the Ministry of Infrastructure issued an order reducing the number of flights that UIA can perform to these destinations in July 2014. The ministry argued that the UIA did not fulfill its obligations to maintain the frequency of flights.

As a result of the court battle, Atlasjet Ukraine lost all its air routes. The most recent judgment in the conflict between the UIA and the Ministry of Infrastructure was made on 3 March by the District Administrative Court of Kyiv, which declared illegal and invalid the Ministry of Infrastructure’s order on the commission for distribution of air routes, thus fully upholding the UIA’s lawsuit. The lawsuit was upheld by the court’s decision No. 826/20406/14 of 3 March 2015. An appeal against the decision is currently being considered, and Infrastructure Minister Andrii Pyvovarskyi expects the court battle to end by May.