The Ukrainian aviation industry is waiting for a sad scenario without restoring air links with Russia. This was stated by the Director of the Ukrainian Agency for Social Communications, political analyst Sergey Belashko.
“Without restoration of air traffic between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, including mutual air transit, Ukrainians can only fantasize about developing a full-fledged hub and intercepting the flow of air passengers between Europe and Asia”, – he wrote on Facebook.
Belashko noted that due to overflights of the Russian territory and the water area, Ukrainian air carriers suffer financial damage. In addition, it increases flight time. For example, the cost of a flight on the route Kiev – Almaty is ten thousand dollars, and on the route Kiev – Beijing is 15 thousand.
On the whole, the political scientist noted, despite the fact that aviation is “the fastest and most convenient transport”, Ukraine has to “work hard for a long time” in this direction. He believes that part of the problem can be solved by canceling excise taxes on fuel, canceling VAT or compensating the state for additional airline costs, but this still will not allow Kiev to become a serious player in the air transportation market.
In this regard, Ukraine urgently needs to agree with Russia on the normalization of air traffic, added Belashko. Otherwise, the Ukrainian aviation industry will face a very sad scenario. This is the cancellation of flights and the closure of routes, reducing staff, reducing tax revenues and worsening the logistics climate.
Since October 2015, between Kiev and Russia, at the initiative of Kiev, there is completely no air service. In October of this year, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky called strange the fact that there is no direct air service, but trains continue to run between countries. According to him, because of this, Ukrainian companies go bankrupt.