The Kyiv airport intends to extend its runway within the next 3-5 years to enable it to receive heavier aircraft.

The Master-Avia company’s co-owner Denys Kostrzhevskyi announced this in comments to the CFTS portal.

According to Kostrzhevskyi, the documents necessary for allocation of additional land at both ends of the runway are currently under consideration at the Kyiv municipal administration.

"The documents for allocation of additional land at the ends of the runway are currently at the Kyiv municipal administration. The airport plans to somehow extend the runway in the next 3-5 years to enable it to receive Airbus A321 aircraft without restrictions," he said.

Asked who could finance the runway construction work, Kostrzhevskyi said it would “most likely be some kind of symbiosis, a public-private partnership.”

As the CFTS portal reported earlier, the Wizz Air airline recently said that it could leave the Zhulyany airport after the upgrade of its aircraft fleet to the Airbus A321 because of the inability of the airport’s existing runway to receive aircraft of this type.

Commenting on this information, the head of the airport’s board of directors said that the Hungarian low-cost airline was using this argument to exert pressure on the airport.

“From our point of view, everything here suits them. Negotiations on granting additional discounts and additional comfort for passengers are ongoing. One of the elements of such negotiations is a slight blackmail with the threat of leaving for the Boryspil airport,” Kostrzhevskyi said.

As the CFTS reported earlier, the Kyiv airport plans to extend its runway by 600 meters. The extension project requires EUR 84 million (about UAH 2.6 billion).

As reported earlier, the airport has officially opened a new wing of its Terminal A, which should double the capacity of the passenger terminal.