Kyiv airport to restore passenger traffic by 60-65% of 2019 level in 2021 – development director

KYIV. Aug 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Kyiv Sikorsky International Airport plans to end 2021 with 60-65% of the passenger traffic recorded in 2019, at about 1.4 million passengers, Yevhen Belik, the airport development director, has said.

"Summer navigation brought the Ukrainian market on average by 70% of the level of 2019. As for Kyiv airport, we have worked out the spring-summer navigation with the best possible performance and restored passenger traffic to 70-75% of the equivalent period in 2019," he said in an exclusive interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency.

Speaking about the expansion of the flight map, the expert noted that after the quarantine, Ukraine opened up to the Middle East. So, at present Kyiv airport expects the start of flights from Kuwait by Jazeera Airways.

"We look quite positively at all the countries of the Middle East – their passengers are very interested in Ukraine. After the quarantine, the flow of tourists from these countries increased by 5-6%, which is associated, in particular, with the coming of Flynas. Air Arabia, FlyDubai, Ukrainian airlines – SkyUp, UIA – also started flying well. Therefore, our team regards this direction as very promising. Aviation will move in this direction at a good pace," he said.

As reported, Kyiv Ihor Sikorsky International Airport served 704,500 passengers in 2020, which is 3.72 times less than in 2019.