The Lviv airport is hoping to cooperate with Qatar Airways in the near future. There are no clear agreements yet, but Qatar Airways may launch flights to Lviv in the next year or two. A delegation from Qatar is expected in 2018. The Lviv airport’s General Director Tetiana Romanivska stated this in an interview with the CFTS portal.
"For us, even holding talks with one of the world’s leading airlines was still in the realms of fiction just a few years ago. However, Qatar Airways’ interest in us has increased significantly because events in Asia are very dynamic," she said.
"It would be an exaggeration to make a definite announcement after the first visit (to Qatar.) However, the very fact that the delegation was flying with a minister intensified Qatar Airways’ interest in Lviv. They promised to pay attention to us and study our capabilities. They will come to us for an infrastructure check when it gets a little warmer and they have vacant seats in their timetable. They did not say, ‘we are flying tomorrow,’ but, of course, such flights are not launched in one day," Romanivska said.
Romanivska also outlined the factors that could facilitate cooperation between the Lviv airport and one of the world's leading air carriers. "The Lviv airport is developing very strongly. The fact that we have 50% growth is a very good indicator. Airlines are looking not at the kind of passenger traffic we have but at the growth and trends we have. Therefore, I suppose that we can still expect them this year or maybe next year despite the fact that they are taking a long time to think out it. Kyiv is open and the airline may be interested in having another base in Ukraine because our country is large and promising and the airline needs to develop its routes. Therefore, Lviv could become a reserve airport for Qatar Airways. There have already been cases in which their flights were canceled this year and they went to foreign airports instead of Kyiv, although they could have landed in Lviv."
Romanivska also announced talks with the Spanish low-cost airline, Vueling, during the interview.
As reported earlier, the Lviv airport is in talks with the Emirates and Air Astana airlines.