Ryanair: Ukraine Airports Must Offer 'Aggressive' Discounts To Rebuild Traffic

Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary has criticized Ukrainian airport operators for failing to engage on post-war recovery plans, accusing them of prioritizing “egregious profit-making” over rebuilding connectivity.

Speaking during an investor call on May 19 following the release of Ryanair’s full-year financial results, O’Leary reiterated the airline’s long-term commitment to Ukraine, where it served four cities before Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion. However, he voiced frustration over what he views as a lack of progress in commercial discussions with airport stakeholders.

“Ukraine is clearly a big market for us,” O’Leary said. “We have an extensive plan to go back into Kiev, Lviv and Odessa ... with 5 million passengers in the first year, growing to 10 million passengers within three or four years.”

However, he warned those plans are being hindered by what he described as a lack of cooperation from Ukrainian airports. “We have been disappointed at the response of the Ukraine airports, who have basically refused to engage with us,” O’Leary said. “All we’re getting out of the airports is, ‘Just pay the public charges.’” If that’s their response ... I think we’d be looking at going back there with maybe 1 million passengers in year one, rising to maybe 2 or 3 million.”

O’Leary said Ryanair is prepared to ramp up service as soon as the security situation permits, pointing to the airline’s extensive European base network as a key advantage. “Ryanair is the only airline that will go in there on day one from about 26 or 30 European cities,” he said.

But he argued that airport pricing policies in Ukraine could undermine the country’s post-war recovery if airports fail to offer incentives to stimulate traffic. “If you want to recover and rebuild that economy very rapidly, then egregious profit-making by empty airports is not the way forward,” O’Leary said.

“If you’re going to rebuild the Ukrainian economy quickly,” he continued, “those airports need to get real, follow the example of many other European airports and aggressively discount what is an empty airport—and not just to Ryanair. They should be aggressively discounting to all airlines.”

O’Leary then characterized some Ukraine airport directors as “lazy,” adding they should “do a deal with us quickly if they want real radical growth and real radical economic rebuilding and development in Ukraine.”

Aviation Week has approached Kyiv Boryspil—which has now been without flights and passengers for almost 1,200 days—for comment regarding O’Leary’s latest remarks.

Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ryanair served Kharkiv, Kyiv, Lviv and Odesa. In 2021, the airline offered approximately 550,000 departure seats from Kyiv Boryspil International Airport (KBP), according to OAG Schedules Analyser data, making it the airport’s fourth-largest carrier that year.

Speaking at Routes Europe 2025 in Seville, KBP director of commercial and strategy, Sergiy Khyzhnyak, said the airport could resume operations within a month of it being safe to do so. While acknowledging that reopening after more than three years of airspace closure—and two years of pandemic disruptions before that—would require “a lot of work,” he emphasized that the airport has been maintained in a state of readiness.

On May 19, Ryanair reported a profit after tax for the financial year to March 31, 2025, of €1.61 billion ($1.82 billion), while revenues rose 4% to €13.95 billion.hile revenues rose 4% to €13.95 billion.