Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Kryklyi met with the president of the Qatari Civil Aviation Administration at the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure on November 11. A protocol between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the government of Qatar on amendments and supplements to the Air Transport Agreement between the two countries was signed during the meeting.
The Ministry of Infrastructure announced this in a statement, the CFTS portal reports.
According to Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure, the signing of this protocol will liberalize the conditions for performance of regular flights between Ukraine and Qatar.
“We are liberalizing flights between Ukraine and the State of Qatar. The signing of today's protocol will increase the access of airlines in both countries to the air transport market and remove restrictions on the number of flights, types of aircraft, and destinations in both countries,” Kryklyi said.
In comments to the CFTS, the minister of infrastructure’s adviser Viktor Dovhan said, "It will be possible to talk about complete liberalization of flights (eliminating restrictions on frequencies and destinations) with Qatar after the parliament ratifies this protocol."
“Now, this is an important signal to Qatar Airways to expand the geography of its flights, primarily to the Lviv airport. At the beginning of 2019, their delegation visited the airport to analyze the prospects for launching direct Doha-Lviv flights,” Dovhan said.
As reported, the Qatari flew to Ukraine to negotiate the launch of direct Doha-Lviv flights in February this year.
Following the Qatari delegation’s visit to Lviv, the Lviv airport’s General Director Tetiana Romanivska said that Qatar Airways was holding talks with Ukraine’s State Aviation Administration on granting the "fifth freedom," i.e. permission to fly from Ukrainian airports to airports in third countries.
In addition, it was reported in spring this year that the Kharkiv airport intended to establish cooperation with Qatar Airways.
