An official signing ceremony for the deal took place at the US Department of State on July 14, 2015 with Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Catherine A Novelli joining Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Andriy Pyvovarsky in signing the formal Open Skies agreement.
Ukraine is a huge market opportunity, but for many carriers there have been notable restrictions on air access. Negotiations on a full EU-Ukraine open skies agreement had reached a critical stage over the past couple of years, but have fallen on a more regional structure. This has initially seen the Ukraine Infrastructure Ministry allow the western Ukrainian city of Lviv to be linked directly to European Union destinations without any restrictions as a trial run.
As Ukraine’s leading carrier, UIA is playing an important role in developing air traffic from both the country’s capital Kiev and other cities across Ukraine.
The new four times weekly Košice – Kiev service will launch on May 18, 2015 and will operate as an extension of the carrier’s existing Prague – Košice offering. This will mean passengers flying between Prague and Kiev will remain on the aircraft while the 144-seat A319 makes a 30 minute stopover in the Slovakian city to collect and drop off passengers.
During the past couple of days we have been in conversation with many delegates during Routes Silk Road in Tbilisi, Georgia and here are some of the snippets of information we picked up from our discussions.
