The head of the Kiev (Zhulyany) international airport’s board of directors, Denys Kostrzhevskyi, believes that Ryanair, the largest budget airline company in Europe, is unlikely to come to Ukraine, the DTN portal reports.
"I think that such large low-cost airline companies need big discounts. As a result, airports can offer such discounts only in cases of significant passenger traffic, the potential for which does not exist in Ukraine,” Kostrzhevskyi told reporters on Wednesday.
According to him, if the notional passenger fee at the airport is USD 15-17, then Ryanair can ask for USD 5, which would require passenger traffic of 5-10 million people per year, which does not exist in Ukraine “in principle."
"The dynamics are growing; therefore Ryanair will have the potential opportunity to come here sooner or later. However, the market will already have been lost and redistributed by that time,” Kostrzhevskyi said.
As the CFTS portal previously reported, Ryanair plans to enter the Ukrainian market after a general aviation area (the so-called Open Skies) is established between Ukraine and the European Union.
Earlier this week, Polish Radio reported that Ryanair had held talks with three Ukrainian airports (Kiev, Lvov, and Donetsk) on launching routes.
The Irish carrier's Vice President Michael Cawley said that "many Ukrainians" use the services of company from the Polish city of Rzeszow, which is located close to the border with Ukraine. At the same time, the press service of the company did not provide data on the number of Ukrainian citizens that have used its services in recent years and the growth dynamics.
As reported, in July this year, the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure announced plans to sign an Open Skies agreement with the European Union in the summer of 2014 with the aim of introducing it in early 2015.
