Groysman: Ryanair canceled its launch in Ukraine because the government lacks proper strategy for developing air industry
Ryanair, the largest European airline, canceled its entry to the Ukrainian market, because the country had no strategic vision for the air transportation industry as a whole, as stated in an interview with Prime Minister Volodymyr Grossman for Novoye Vremya.
"I gathered everyone who had anything to do with it. It is important that we clearly understand the development strategy and where we are going," he said.
The head of the Cabinet noted that he attempted to resolve the issue with Ryanair, an investment office, the government, the Ministry of Infrastructure, and the Boryspil airport. At the same time, the Ministry of Infrastructure was instructed to develop a strategy for the development of airports.
According Groysman, in Kyiv there needs to be an international air hub at the Boryspil airport, a city airport, and a low cost airport, for example, Gostomel.
The Prime Minister feels certain that Gostomel can become a low cost airport, which will increase the overall potential of civil air transportation in Ukraine by 2 or 3 times.
Groysman stressed that new agreements with Ryanair should be reached on mutually beneficial terms for the state and private carrier, and that passengers will benefit from this.
"This is the task that I put before the Ministry of Infrastructure, the investment office, and airports as the Prime Minister," Groysman said.
The Prime Minister assured that he initially did not know about the memorandum signed by the Minister of Infrastructure, Volodymyr Omelyan with Ryanair. Groysman said that the Ministry offered conditions in the memorandum that were not discussed with anyone beforehand. And this, according to the Prime Minister, led to Ryanair referring to this document during negotiations.
"It was a weak negotiating position from the very beginning," Groysman said.
On July 10th, the Irish low cost airline canceled the planned launch in the Ukrainian market.
The official reason voiced by the air carrier was that Boryspil had not fulfilled the agreement reached by the Ministry of Infrastructure’s head, Pavlo Ryabikin.