Emirates Airline has revealed plans to further expand its reach in Eastern Europe with the launch of daily services between its Dubai International Airport hub and Borispil International Airport in Kiev from January 16, 2014, marking its first route to the Ukraine. The announcement was made just over a week before Ukraine will be hosting the third Routes CIS forum in the city of Donestk, in the East of the country.

The new service will be operated using a 258-seat Airbus A340-500 and will mark the debut of a First Class product on a route that is already served by the carrier’s sister business, low-cost carrier flydubai, and Ukraine’s most prominent carrier, Ukraine International Airlines. The four-engined jet is configured with 12 private suites in First Class, 42 deeply reclining Business Class seats, and space for 204 passengers in the Economy cabin.

Emirates will be the first of the big three Gulf hub airlines to introduce flights to Kiev and will leverage on transfer opportunities to enhance connection opportunities via Dubai, to Ukraine’s population of 45 million, further enhancing the nation’s burgeoning economy. With a booming agricultural sector the Ukraine is currently the world’s largest exporter of sunflower oil and a major global producer of grain and sugar.

“We see strong potential in the Ukraine through its agribusiness, heavy machinery industries, technology, and tourism. We expect Dubai to be a popular choice for our customers in the Ukraine, facilitating new business opportunities as well as offering leisure travellers world-class accommodation and entertainment options,” said Hubert Frach, Divisional Senior Vice President Commercial Operations West, Emirates Airline.

There has been regular service between Dubai and Kiev for many years with Air Ukraine and latterly Aerosvit Airlines serving the route. Ukraine International Airlines entered the market in October 2005 and remains the designated carrier on the route following the collapse of Aerosvit late last year. However, it was the introduction of flights to the Ukraine capital by flydubai that would have afforded Emirates Airline with a clear view on the potential of this market. The airline introduced flights in September 2011 and increased to an at least daily operation from December 2012.

The arrival of flydubai helped stimulate point-to-point demand between Kiev and Dubai to a position that Emirates now feels comfortable that the mix of O&D and transfer demand will make this operation sustainable for a widebody. Between 2006 and 2010 demand on the route fluctuated between 40,000 and 50,000 bi-directional passengers (although it did peak at almost 67,000 in 2008 due to capacity growth), but following flydubai’s arrival in 2011 traffic has almost doubled to just under 100,000 for the past two consecutive years.

Although demand rose just 0.8 per cent in 2012, flydubai increased its own share of the O&D market to 36 per cent from just ten per cent the previous year, making it the dominant carrier on the route. Alongside the operation of flydubai, Emirates will also face indirect LCC point-to-point competition from Air Arabia which resumed flights to Kiev from Sharjah in February 2011 having briefly previously served the route in early 2009. But, for Emirates it is more about marrying the O&D demand with the strong transfer options it can offer from its Dubai International Airport hub.

“Kiev will be our 35th passenger route in Europe and Emirates' customers in the Ukraine will be able to fly non-stop to our Dubai hub and conveniently connect onwards to destinations in the Indian Ocean Islands and Asia, in addition to our extensive Australian network courtesy of our partnership with Qantas,” added Frach

There are sizeable markets for air travel between Ukraine and parts of the Middle East and Asia. According to MIDT data an estimated 701,000 bi-directional O&D passengers flew between Ukraine and destinations across the Middle East – mainly Tel Aviv – while around 77,000 and 11,000 flew to and/or from destinations across Africa and Australasia, respectively.

It is the Asian market that statistics show as holding the greatest potential from Ukraine. An estimated 1.3 million bi-directional passengers flew to or from destinations across the region from Ukraine in 2012 with demand spread across the region. The largest flows were into the Caucasus area (347,000), Central Asia (281,000) and Asian Russian Federation (258,000) but there was also sizeable demand into East Asia (173,000), South Asia and the Indian sub-continent (147,000) and Southeast Asia (110,000).

Ukraine’s GDP growth is expected to show steady momentum for the next three years as a result of increasing consumer confidence, and increased demand for raw building materials such as steel. Emirates’ Kiev service will also help support key exports from the Ukraine through the dedicated belly hold with a capacity of 15 tonnes transporting aircraft spares, heavy industry machinery equipment and ships spares.

Emirates’ launch of Kiev will follow on from the launch of Stockholm on September 4, 2013, Clark in the Philippines on October 1, 2013, and the Transatlantic service from Milan to New York, also commencing on October 1, 2013. In Africa, Emirates will expand its Dakar operation with a linked service to Conakry in Guinea from October 27 2013.