The recent fall of Ukraine’s hryvnia national currency is leading to a fall in in demand for air travel, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reports.
The Wizz Air Ukraine low-cost airline company’s Sales Manager Vadym Tretiak told the news agency that this situation affects primarily the purchasing power of the population and has a significant impact on the cost of fuel in the local currency. "As we have seeing from experience in the previous months, demand for air travel in such conditions is reducing," he said.
Ukraine International Airlines’ corporate secretary Yevhenia Satska said that airfares are definitely pegged to the dollar, which means that ticket prices change accordingly and proportionately when the exchange rate changes in one way or another. The components of overall airfare (fuel, maintenance, etc.) change similarly.
"Due to the fact that the incomes of the vast majority of citizens of Ukraine are in hryvnia and the fact that these incomes are not indexed, as a rule, a significant exchange-rate jump causes a reduction in effective demand when the currency exchange rate rises. As an airline company, we are certainly feeling it. Domestic flights are no exception in this sense," said Satska.
At the same time, Wizz Air Ukraine’s commercial manager emphasizes that the company continues to offer affordable prices for flights. In general, market players are advising passengers to buy tickets for the spring and the summer now and not delay.
