Construction of a new airport in the Zakarpattia region before 2023 is being planned. According to preliminary estimates, investment in construction of the airport will amount to UAH 3-4 billion.

The chairperson of Ukraine’s State Agency for Infrastructure Projects, Kyrylo Khomiakov, announced this in his column in the Business Tsenzor publication, the CFTS portal reports.

According to Khomiakov, the new airport in the Zakarpattia region is expected to be built within the framework of a public-private partnership, in which the state will bear the cost of building the airport and a private investor will build the terminal.

Khomiakov also stated that the Cabinet of Ministers has approved allocation of UAH 30 million for the pre-design and design work for construction of the new airport.

"Before determining the optimal location, aerial photography of the area will be conducted to identify tall obstacles and other factors (such as land, the presence of major structures, and proximity to major infrastructures)... After completion of the pre-design work, the general designer of the airfield will be selected. An investment plan and an environmental impact assessment will be prepared simultaneously, followed by the airfield construction phase," Khomiakov wrote.

According to him, the airport’s runway will have a length of at least 2,500 meters, which will allow it to receive aircraft of the types A320 and B737.

As reported previously, the Cabinet of Ministers included construction of an airport in Mukacheve in the State Program for Development of Airports in 2020-2023 in August.

Earlier, Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Kryklyi said that the volume of passenger traffic through the new airport was projected at between 200,000 and 300,000 per year, possibly increasing to between e 500,000 and 600,000.

“Unfortunately, the only operational airport in the region is in Uzhhorod, and its functionality is limited by the difficulty of taking off and landing through the territory of Slovakia and its inability to handle B737/A320 aircraft,” Kryklyi said.

Earlier, it was reported that Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Slovakia’s Prime Minister Igor Matovic had agreed to reopen the Uzhhorod airport. The Ukrainian prime minister said that green light had been given to resumption of the Zakarpattian airport’s operation. However, the relevant intergovernmental agreement remains to be signed.