The Kyiv (Zhulyany) airport received an Airbus A321 airliner, which is the largest of the A320 family of commercial passenger airliners, for the first time on October 31.

The YanAir airline operated the Flight No. ANR9003 from Vinnytsia to Zhulyany, using an A321 airliner with the registration number UR-COJ on Tuesday. The flight was technical. "For now, it is a technical flight. However, regular flights on the YanAir airline’s routes, particularly the route to Tel Aviv, will be performed in the near future," the press service of the airport told the CFTS.

The Airbus A321 airliner has an elongated fuselage compared to other models and, accordingly, increased passenger capacity.

As the CFTS reported, the Kyiv airport’s Board Chairman Denys Kostrzhevskyi recently said that A321 airliners could soon begin flying to the airport.

"We have performed large-scale reconstruction of the runway and we will most likely be able to increase the take-off weight of arriving and departing aircraft and reach the level of strength that will allow reception of an Airbus 321. This is a big step toward in the handling of aircraft because we were previously limited to take-off weights of up to 78 tons. The Airbus 321 is much heavier. Airlines are now moving to heavier types of aircraft, which carry more passengers and, accordingly, lower the cost price of a passenger seat," said Kostrzhevskyi.