According to the preliminary data, Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) carried 1,787,000 passengers from January to December 2020 or four times fewer than the approximately 8 million passengers it carried in 2019.
The airline announced this on 24 December, the CFTS portal reports.
The number of transit passengers carried by the airline was 486,000 (43% of its total passenger volume), which is 86% lower compared with the number of transit passengers it carried last year.
UIA operated about 17,000 scheduled and code-share flights from January to December 2020, 72% fewer than in 2019;
From January to December 2020, the airline transported 4,824,000 kilograms of cargo (15,073,000 in 2019) and 1,350,000 kilograms of mail (4,404,000 in 2019).
The fall of al these operating indicators is connected with the coronavirus pandemic and government decisions to ban flights.
According to UIA, the airline optimized its operations during the lockdown: it reduced its items of expenditure threefold, optimized its fleet of aircraft, and proportionally cut its staff by about 1,000 people.
As reported earlier, Ukraine International Airlines appealed to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi in early December to help obtain funding and defer payment of debts.
