The Boryspil international airport, Ukraine International Airlines (UIA), and the Ukrposhta state postal enterprise have signed a memorandum of cooperation in Kyiv. Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelian said during the signing ceremony that he hoped that UIA would now add cargo aircraft to its fleet in addition to passenger aircraft.
UIA and Ukrposhta have already implemented a joint technological solution for transportation and handling of parcels and mail. The relevant project was launched in November 2016. About 50 tons of international mail has already been transported from China on transit through the Boryspil international airport to five countries (Lithuania, Latvia, Armenia, Cyprus, and Israel) within the framework of this project. UIA will start using its own aircraft to transport mail from Switzerland on transit through Ukraine to other CIS countries in February.
"The average time of processing shipments from Boryspil to Ukrposhta has been reduced from 5 to 1.5 days," Ukrposhta’s General Director Ihor Smelianskyi told a press conference.
According to him, Ukrposhta plans to increase the volume of mail deliveries from 36 tons to 150 tons per month. Current, the main destinations are the United States, Kazakhstan, and Britain. Part of the volume that is currently transported on transit through Moscow (Russia) will go through Ukraine, he said.
UIA’s President Yurii Miroshnikov said that the signing of the memorandum and collaboration with Ukrposhta was a good example of public-private partnership.
"UIA is strongly engaged in development of transportation of transit goods and we are trying to create an international hub together with the Boryspil airport. Transportation of mail was a bit more difficult than transportation of passengers because it is difficult without cooperation with a postal agency," he said.
He added that although only one of the 40 aircraft in the airline’s fleet is a cargo plane, all its airliners have cargo compartments that are used to transport mail. "All our airplanes will be used to transport mail," Miroshnikov said.
According to his estimates, UIA will be able to transport more than 1,000 tons of mail on transit through Ukraine in 2017 as a result of closer cooperation with Ukrposhta.
