Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has called for development of the Gostomel airport and its transformation into a base airport for low-cost airlines, including the Ryanair airline (Ireland). He made the call at a meeting on development of air links and negotiations with low-cost airlines, the Cabinet of Ministers announced in a statement.
The prime minister stressed that the strategy for attracting airlines to the Boryspil international airport (Kyiv), which is Ukraine’s largest airport, is understandable. However, according to him, there are two more airports – the Kyiv (Zhulyany) and Gostomel airports – and they need to be developed.
In this context, Groysman proposed the idea of developing the Gostomel airport, which currently serves as the base for the aircraft of the Antonov state aircraft manufacturing plant and the Antonov Airlines, and turning it into a base airport for low-cost airlines, including Ryanair. The prime minister proposed preparing the project documentation for development of the Hostomel airport that stipulates the cost of all the necessary works works.
"We should now make a decision that will allow us to resolve several issues at once, including abolition of monopolies at the Boryspil airport, attraction of new air carriers, and reduction of ticket prices for our passengers," the prime minister said.
At the end of the meeting, the participants in it decided to continue attracting low-cost airlines to Ukraine and consider, as a temporary solution, creation of the necessary working conditions for low-cost airlines at the Boryspil (Kyiv region) and Kyiv (Zhulyany) airports for a period of one year and convert the Gostomel airport into an airport for low-cost airlines during this period.
In addition, according to them, a condition for attracting low-cost airlines should be operation of flights to Ukrainian regional airports. "Therefore, the most important task is to prepare a decision on development of regional airports," Groysman said.
As reported, the idea of attracting Ryanair to the Gostomel airport instead of the Boryspil airport has already been proposed by some experts, but Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelian opposed the idea.
