REUTERS
Regular air traffic has been on hold since the onset of the national quarantine.
Ukraine's Ihor Sikorsky Kyiv International Airport (Zhuliany) may not survive the COVID-19 crisis if the government fails to provide support, the airport's press secretary, Halyna Bohdanenko, says.
The airport needs not so much financial assistance, but above all the regulatory support on the part of government, she told Hromadske Radio.
"We've been trying for several months to have the minimum rates for our services changed. We ourselves cannot change rates so government intervention is required here. We were on an equal footing with the Boryspil Airport, our rates were higher and carriers chose another airport," Bohdanenko said.
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Also, she added that the Boryspil Airport enjoys a better rate than any other Ukrainian airport, which creates unfair competitive conditions.
"Air carriers choose another airport – when the airspace was closed, all evacuation and humanitarian flights were directed to Boryspil, so we had to close our airport. That is, the airport receives no income, while paying taxes. Now we need to at least survive the crisis and reach the pre-crisis volumes, which requires more than one year," the spokeswoman concluded.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian authorities explained how air travel, including international, will resume in Ukraine as quarantine eases.