Ryanair airline cancels its plans to enter Ukrainian air transportation market
The largest low-cost airline in Europe, Ryanair Airline cancelled its planned entry into the Ukrainian air transportation market, reports the airline’s press service.
Ryanair noted that they could not come to an agreement with the Ukrainian airport Boryspil in meeting the conditions that were previously discussed with the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, Kyiv airport decided to maintain highly priced air tickets instead and deprived Ukrainian consumers of access to the cheapest tickets in Europe,” the company said. They added that “there is no choice but to cancel four new routes from Kyiv and seven new Lviv routes.”
“On behalf of Ukrainian visitors and consumers we regret that Kyiv airport demonstrated that Ukraine is not mature enough and reliable enough for investing by Ryanair yet,” said David O'Brien, the Chief Commercial Officer of Ryanair. He added that he regrets that “Lviv airport was the victim of the decision of the Kyiv airport.”
In the future, the company plans to transfer the capacities provided for Ukraine to the other countries, like Germany for example. Ryanair also reported that people who had already purchased tickets for flights should email the company for reimbursement.
Ryanair announced its entry into the Ukrainian market on March 15. Low-cost flights were planned to start from the Boryspil on September 6. On July 5, Boryspil announced that it had sent to Ryanair its version of the agreement on the terms of service for the airline.
Boryspil airport refused to take into account a number of Ryanair’s requirements, having estimated the potential losses from the airline's operation of USD 77 million per year.