The Boryspil airport’s General Director Anton Volov announced at a press conference today that the airport’s Terminal F would be the base for charter and low-cost carriers, CFTS’ correspondent reports.
The terminal will be at the disposal of low-cost airlines and charter carriers after the airport’s base company, Ukraine International Airlines, transfers all its regular international flights to Terminal D, according to officials at the airport. The entire processes of switching to the new format will be fine-tuned at the terminal F over a period of one month, during which the airport will limit the number of flights handled there. After that, all companies operating in the charter and low-cost transport sector will be invited to work there.
"But it will not be done by force because the most important issue for companies is the turnover of aircraft. If the same airplanes are used for charter and regular flights, basing them at different terminals can be unprofitable. Those that want to leave their charter or low-cost flights at Terminal D should do so," said Volov. The airport expects the terminal F, which has a capacity of 4 million passengers per year, to be filled quickly, including by low-cost airline companies.
"We are in talks with all the leading low-cost airline companies. However, it is very difficult to communicate with some of them, for example the Ryanair company. Usually, it uses peripheral airports, and it is not ready to pay money for services to its passengers. On the contrary, it wants to receive subsidies from the airport for bringing passenger traffic here. But that is not possible here because our airport has no moral right to provide services to Ryanair’s passengers for USD 5 and not provide similar benefits to its base airline companies, which account for its main passenger traffic,” explained Volov.
According to the Boryspil airport, Ukraine International Airlines presently accounts for around 40% of the passenger traffic at the airport. As reported earlier, the lack of the appropriate infrastructure in Ukraine has been cited as the main obstacle to the emergence in Ukraine of low-cost airline companies, which are widespread in other European countries.
