The Lviv airport would like to provide its passengers the possibility of low-cost flights on long-haul routes, and the Aer Lingus airline (Ireland) is one of the airlines that could perform such flivghts.
"Another border we would like to cross faster is transcontinental flights. I think it will initially be Canada and the United States. We are interested in the operator being a Ukrainian carrier, possibly UIA. At the same time, we are also working to ensure that foreign airlines also show such an interest. We want to give our citizens the opportunity to use the services of low-cost airlines on long-haul flights, such as the Norwegian and Aer Lingus airlines, which operate flights to the United States and Canada from Norway and Ireland at prices starting at USD 150," the Lviv airport’s Director Tetiana Romanovska said in an interview with ZIK.
Aer Lingus is the national carrier of Ireland. The Irish government owns 25.4% of the shares in the airline. The airline has a four-star rating from Skytrax. It has a fleet of 62 aircraft. Aer Lingus is part of the International Airlines Group (IAG), which also includes such carriers as British Airways, Iberia, LEVEL, and Vueling. The airline's base is in Dublin. It operates flights from Dublin, Cork, and Shannon to around 40 destinations in Europe and from Dublin and Shannon to 11 destinations in the United States and Canada. Ticket prices start at EUR 35 for European flights and EUR 209 for transatlantic flights.
Romanovska spoke about possible cooperation with the Norwegian airline earlier this year. "It is a low-cost airline that has also started performing long-haul flights. We are planning flights from Lviv to Norway. We understand that a passenger can transfer to the Norwegian and fly to New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto for EUR 150 if there is at least one flight to Copenhagen, which will be operated by Wizz Air and Ryanair. As soon as Wizz Air begins flights, Ryanair will follow and the Norwegian will later join them," Romanovska said earlier this year.
In addition, the head of the Lviv airport recently announced that the airport was holding talks with Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) on operation of a test flight from Lviv to North America.
As reported, the first Irish airline with which the Lviv airport intends to work is the Ryanair low-cost airline. The airport even signed an agreement with Ryanair. Nevertheless, Ryanair announced the cancellation of Lviv routes. Ryanair’s management has said that the airline does not intend to enter the Ukrainian market only for the sake of the Lviv airport and without flights to the Boryspil airport. In addition, Ukraine International Airlines has asked a court to terminate the contract between Ryanair and the Lviv airport.
However, Romanovska considers UIA’s claims groundless. "We are not afraid of their possible appeal to the Antimonopoly Committee. On the contrary, such an appeal may become a trap for them because UIA has negotiated many concessions with low-cost airlines in order to reduce the cost of air tickets, but their current price policy and dominant position in the market does not reflect this," she said in the interview.
