The State Aviation Service of Ukraine is ready to amend the controversial order that approved the new procedure for granting airlines the right to operate flights on air routes.
"If the entire industry believes that we need to change the criteria to in order to de-monopolize the market, let us do it. For example, we can take the low-cost approach: whoever guarantees to provide cheap flights. However, it must be possible to revoke such rights in case of failure to provide such services," the State Aviation Service’s head Denys Antoniuk told journalists at the end of a public discussion on changes to the procedure on Wednesday, the CFTS correspondent reports.
At the same time, according to him, there are sections of the document that cannot be changed because they were not proposed by the State Aviation Service but required by European countries. In particular, these sections require business owners to be citizens of Ukraine.
"If we are talking about the requirement that property should be local, that is not our requirement. This is what the whole world works with. It is strange that these Western carriers are proposing operating in Europe based on one rule [and operating in Ukraine based on another rule]," he said.
Antoniuk also said that there would be no rules for issuing permits to operate flights on air routes in Ukraine while work on changes to the procedure is underway because the Ministry of Infrastructure’s order No. 245 does not work. "There are no such rules, unfortunately. There are good reasons for saying that there will be a legal vacuum," Antoniuk concluded.
