Flights From Boryspil Or Lviv Airport Could Resume In January ‘If We Are Lucky’

Passenger flights from one of Ukraine's airports - either Lviv or Boryspil - will resume by the end of January 2025.

Crispin Allison, a senior partner at Marsh McLennan, said this at the 10th Kyiv International Economic Forum in Kyiv, the CFTS portal reports, citing the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

"I think if we are lucky, in January 2025, we will have five or six airlines that want to fly," Ellison said.

According to him, it will be easier to provide insurance mechanisms to allow aviation to resume if planes start flying from the Lviv airport, but President Volodymyr Zelenskyi insists that the Boryspil International Airport should be the first to reopen.

He said an Airbus A320 or a Boeing 737 - a small airliner - requires three-quarters of a billion dollars in insurance.

According to Ellison, the final decision on resumption of flights will be made by the Office of the President. It will depend on the distribution of air defense systems and the security situation in the country.

"I keep saying that Lviv is a lot safer than Tel Aviv. People don't like it when I say that, but I do," he said.

As the CFTS portal reported earlier, the Ministry of Development of Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure, with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine and jointly with the State Aviation Service, the state-owned State Air Traffic Services Enterprise (UkSATSE), the Air Force Command, and heads of international airports, presented a roadmap for opening Ukraine's airspace under martial law at the end of October 2024.

"This is the first expert discussion that we expect to help us move forward on the issue of creating the conditions necessary to reopen the airspace. During the war, it is a strategic task for us to preserve aviation infrastructure and qualified personnel so that when the time comes, we can resume civilian flights as quickly as possible. It is clear that this is a very complex issue, both in terms of security and in terms of interaction with all parties involved. That is why we support platforms in working with foreign industry regulators, insurance companies, airports, and the military to develop a joint plan," said Oleksii Kuleba, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for Reconstruction and Minister of Development of Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure.