The Kyiv international airport (Zhulyany) is confident that the Ryanair low-cost airline will operate flights to the airport. The airport’s Board Chairman Denys Kostrzhevskyi stated this in an interview with the Biznes publication.
"We are always ready to negotiate with any airline, including continuation of the dialogue with Ryanair. I think that the Irish carrier will operate flights to the Kyiv airport eventually. At least, the probability of this is very high. We will find a formula that suits us and Ryanair," Kostrzhevskyi said.
As reported, when Ryanair began looking for opportunities to enter the Ukrainian market and asked the Zhulyany airport to lower its passenger fee to USD 7, the airport quickly ended the negotiations. "At least USD 21-22 could have been discussed seriously," Kostrzhevskyi said.
He also said in the interview that a compromise should not be more beneficial to one party or another because each party has to make concessions to achieve results.
The negotiations with Ryanair lasted only three to four months, although it usually takes about one year to reach agreement with an airline of this size.
"For example, the negotiations with Wizz Air lasted more than two years. They passed through various stages. The Ministry of Infrastructure specifically approved an order granting discounts on airport fees to accommodate Wizz Air (based on the principle of "the more you fly and transport, the larger discount you receive"). A compromise was reached specifically because both sides weighed the pros and cons ten times. I can say the following: no bank would give us loans if the tariffs that Ryanair demanded during the negotiations were applied to Wizz Air, and the airport would not have been able to develop, terminals would not have been built, and so on," Kostrzhevskyi said.
According to him, the Kyiv airport is currently in talks with more than two dozen airlines, including low-cost airlines. According to him, these are airlines that are already flying to the Zhulyany airport but want to expand their routes and frequency of flights, as well as new airlines.
