The State Aviation Administration’s head Denys Antoniuk is forecasting that passenger traffic in Ukraine will reduce by 30% this year. He announced this in in an interview with the CFTS.
“Considering the current political and economic situation, we expect passenger traffic to fall by 30% in 2014. However, increased activity on the market and adjustment of forecasts are possible if it stabilizes and the population's solvency increases,” he said.
According to Antoniuk, passenger traffic on the routes to Russia has reduced significantly. As a result, Ukraine International Airlines is ending flights to Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, and Nizhnevartovsk. A significant fall in passenger traffic has also been registered on routes to Moscow. "For example, Aeroflot has reduced the number of its flights on the Kiev-Moscow route from five to four per day, the UIA from seven to two, and Sibir from three to one," said Antoniuk.
According to the head of the State Aviation Administration, the volume of passenger traffic in Ukraine reduced by 22.7% in April and by 25.1% in the first 22 days of May. He expects the fall in passenger traffic to accelerate because of the closure of the Donetsk airport on May 26 in connection with military operations.
