Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Kryklyi and Slovakia’s Minister of Transport and Construction Andrej Doležal signed a bilateral intergovernmental agreement that will allow a Ukrainian air-navigation service provider to provide air traffic control services related to the operations of the Uzhhorod airport in a section of Slovakia's airspace on 24 September.
The Ministry of Infrastructure announced this in a statement, the CFTS portal reports.
According to the statement, the signing of the agreement will allow full restoration of the Uzhhorod airport’s operations.
The agreement was signed during President Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s official visit to Slovakia.
"Due to the geographical and other features of the Uzhhorod airport, which is located practically on the border with Slovakia, takeoff and landing of aircraft at the airport is impossible without the use of Slovakia’s territory. The previous intergovernmental agreement that regulated this issue has expired, and we worked with the Slovak to renew the agreement to allow full resumption of the airport’s operations," Kryklyi said.
According to him, the signing of this agreement will also help to strengthen bilateral relations between Ukraine and Slovakia in the area of civil aviation and broaden opportunities for international flights.
Kryklyi also expressed the hope that the technical issues related to implementation of the agreement will be approved quickly and that the two countries will sign the implementation protocols within a month.
The document takes account of the security and defense issues arising from Slovakia's membership of NATO and the fact that the Ukrainian-Slovak border is also the external border of NATO.
The agreement was signed for an indefinite period, and it will enter into force on the date of that the last written notification of completion the domestic procedures necessary for its entry into force is received through diplomatic channels.
Since the Uzhhorod airport’s runway ends on the border with Slovakia, airplanes are forced to take off and land through Slovakia’s airspace. Therefore, normal operation of the airport required a Ukrainian-Slovakian intergovernmental agreement outlining the conditions for provision of air navigation services in a section of the Slovakian airspace by a Ukrainian air-navigation service provider at the Uzhhorod airport.
As the CFTS portal reported earlier, Ukraine and Slovakia agreed to reopen the Uzhhorod airport in August this year. All that remained was to sign an intergovernmental agreement.
