The Ministry of Infrastructure intends to raise fees for air navigation services in the Ukrainian airspace and equalize the rates on the approach to and within the Boryspil airport and other Ukrainian airports in 2020.
This is stated in a draft order issued by the Ministry of Infrastructure, the CFTS portal reports.
These changes address the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine’s objections to the application of different rates for fees for air navigation services on the approach to and within the Boryspil international airport and all other airports (established by the Ministry of Infrastructure’s order No. 415 of June 4, 2019).
It proposes increasing the unit rate for air navigation services on the route from EUR 55.1 to EUR 57.55.
According to the accompanying documentation, the reason for the increase of the tariff in euros is the strengthening of the hryvnia national currency. "The main reason for the increase of the euro rate is the fall of the euro against the hryvnia from 33.5 UAH/EUR that was used to calculate the rates for air navigation services for 2019 to 29.0 UAH/EUR in 2020, which represents a 14% difference. If the exchange rate of 33.5 UAH/EUR that was used to calculate the rates for air navigation services in 2019 were used, the new rates for 2020 would be EUR 49.82 for air navigation services on the route and EUR 343.30 for air navigation services on the approach to and within the airport, which is lower than the existing ones," the document states.
The new rate for air navigation services on the route increased by EUR 2.45 (or 4.4%) to EUR 57.55. The rate on the approach to and inside the airfield has reduced by EUR 14.43 (or 3.6%) to EUR 396.57.
According to the Ministry of Infrastructure’s order No. 415 of June 4, 2019, the rates are EUR 210 for the Boryspil airport and EUR 411 for other airports.
In this case, the new rate, if approved, will almost double for Boryspil and reduce by 3.5% for other airports in the country.
As the CFTS portal reported earlier, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has ordered the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure to eliminate the discriminatory conditions in its order No. 415 with regard to the rates for air navigation services for airports. The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine investigated the Ministry of Infrastructure for anti-competitive acts on December 12 and concluded that the ministry’s order No. 415 puts the Boryspil airport in a privileged position compared to other airports.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine said that this could lead to the following: 1) an increase in cost of domestic and international flights for those airports for which the rate is twice as high; 2) result in air transport companies losing interest in other Ukrainian international airports (for example, the Kyiv Zhuliany airport; 3) a reduction in the number of flights to other Ukrainian airports apart from the Boryspil airport.
