Boryspil Airport Explains Paralysis At Its Cargo Terminal

The area and capacity of the Boryspil airport are insufficient to handle the volume of cargo that arrives at the airport, the airport’s Deputy General Director Yevhen Dykhne has written on his Facebook page, the CFTS portal reports.

"The cargo terminal is not working sufficiently well to accommodate the flow of cargoes, which is currently about 300 tons per day. We have been talking about this problem for several years. We are waiting for the authorities to solve the problem because it is primarily a problem of creation of proper, high-quality relationship in the area of public-private partnership," Dykhne wrote.

According to him, the existing cargo terminal has nine warehouses, which were built in 1968, when the airport handled 20-40 tons of cargo per day, and its maximum capacity is 100 tons per day.

According to him, the airport cannot expand the cargo terminal because it is surrounded on all sides by land belonging to other businesses.

“Therefore, the airport has long been proposing construction of a new terminal, but this will require the airport to invest large amounts of funds in a facility that is not part of its core business. According to him, other market participants operate this type of business at major airports all over the world. The main problem now is creation of conditions to protect these investments,” he wrote.

In addition, according to Dykhne, the terminal has insufficient equipment and personnel to handle large volumes of cargo. He wrote that the airport has not been interested in investing in development of the existing cargo terminal in recent years because it is focusing on building a new one.

Regarding the shortage of personnel, Dykhne said that only about 50% of the required number of people currently work on daily shifts at the cargo terminal. According to him, the airport dismisses 2-3 people per month for abuses such as stealing from cargoes, which, unfortunately, is a disease at many airports. Unfortunately, the airport is unable to recruit the required number of personnel, he wrote.

The cargo terminal at the Boryspil airport was practically paralyzed on Friday.

Earlier this year, the airport’s General Director Pavlo Riabikin said that the airport was planning to build a new cargo terminal with its own funds at the site of its existing facilities in 2019 if the Ministry of Infrastructure was unable to attract an investor.