Ukraine’s Largest Airport to Welcome Passengers Within One Month of War’s End

Ukraine's largest airport, Kyiv's Boryspil International, is prepared to resume flights within one month after the end of the war, the airport's director general Oleksiy Dubrevskyy said in an interview with Politico.

"We're doing all the necessary activities to get flights as soon as possible," Dubrevskyy said. "We’re ready to start operations at short notice."

Boryspil has kept paying its staff two-thirds of their pre-war salary and keeps them working "to make sure that all certifications are up-to-date," after learning from the Covid-19 pandemic that rehiring employees at short notice is a challenge.

Dubrevskyy said he expects a post-war boom in flights to Ukraine, due to pent-up demand for tourism, cargo flights for reconstruction, and "a new market niche" of friends and relatives visiting each other from abroad.

With 8 million Ukrainians living abroad, the post-war air travel situation will resemble "Poland in 2004 when it joined the EU," with people traveling back and forth between Ukraine and Europe much more frequently, the leadership of Boryspil believes.

Kyiv has two airports: Boryspil International on the left bank and Kyiv Zhuliani closer to the city center and catering more to budget and shorter-haul flights and general aviation.

Diplomats says that discussions are underway to re-open one of the international airports in western Ukraine, where rocket and drone attacks are less frequent. Lviv’s Danylo Halytskiy is mentioned as a likely candidate.

Separately, Group CEO of Ryanair Michael O'Leary has said Ukraine needs a serious post-war plan for a very aggressive reopening of Ukrainian aviation.

“We submitted to the minister plan to restart aviation in Ukraine. We've committed that if the EASA confirms opening the skies and there have been competitive cost at the airports, we will put 5 million seats into Ukraine in year one. Within six weeks of the skies reopening, we think it's possible that we can connect Kyiv to 25 European cities,” he told Interfax Ukraine.