The District Administrative Court of Kiev has fully upheld a lawsuit by Ukraine International Airlines and declared illegal and invalid the Ministry of Infrastructure’s order No. 245 of 23 March 2013 "On Approval of the Procedure for Granting and Revoking Rights to Operate Air Lines," which is currently in effect. The lawsuit was upheld by the court’s decision No. 826/20406/14 of 3 March 2015, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reports.

The court’s ruling is subject to appeal to the District Administrative Appeal Court of Kiev within 10 days.

However, Andrii Huk, a lawyer with the Marchenko Danevych law firm wrote on his Facebook page that a person could appeal to an administrative court for protection of his rights, freedoms, and interests within six months from the date when the person becomes aware or should become aware of the violation of his rights, freedoms, and interests.

According to him, the court considered Ukraine International Airlines’s lawsuit in essence despite the fact that the plaintiff missed this deadline. In particular, according to him, the court concluded that Ukraine International Airlines became aware of the procedure only at the end of 2014, i.e. more than one year after its publication.

Huk also drew attention to the fact that the court’s decision states under the Air Code of Ukraine, air transportation is not possible without an authorization to operate on air lines. According to him, the invalidation of the order No. 245 could result in substantial losses to the legal entities to which these rights have been granted on the basis of the regulatory act adopted by the defendant (the Ministry of Infrastructure) in the future. This is why the court ruled that the order No. 245 is not deemed invalid from the moment of its approval, but from the moment of issuance of the court decision.

According to Huk, this means that the State Aviation Service of Ukraine should have implemented the order No. 245 earlier despite this ruling.

As reported, the Kiev Administrative Appeal Court upheld the Ministry of Infrastructure’s order No. 245 on 20 January 2015.