Ukraine’s senior leadership will now be able to fly on airplanes operated by the Ukrainian airline, SkyUp, on their visits abroad.
The airline has concluded the relevant contract with the Ukraina state aviation enterprise, which specializes in the transportation of government officials, the CFTS portal reports, citing the Avianews publication.
"The SkyUp airline is operating flights on behalf of the Ukraina state aviation enterprise. The contract will be valid until the end of 2023. The airline's planes can be operated on behalf of this organization in accordance with the terms of the contract," SkyUp said.
According to the airline, information about scheduled flights is not provided for security reasons.
However, it is already known that the SkyUp airline’s first high-ranking passenger was Ukraine’s Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal, who flew to Canada for a working visit on 10 April.
The Ukrainian prime minister boarded a SkyUp Boeing 737-800 at an airport in Rzeszów (Poland), which is on the Ukrainian-Polish border. Shmyhal flew to Canada from there, with the airplane refueling in the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik.
SkyUp currently has 12 Boeing 737 aircraft in its fleet. The airline operates them with the maximum number of seats allowed by the rules.
For example, Shmyhal flew on a Boeing 737-800 with 189 seats. Ryanair, the largest low-cost carrier in Europe, uses this configuration.
A day before flying the Ukrainian prime minister, the SkyUp plane flew ordinary passengers from Chisinau on behalf of the Air Moldova airline.
