Boryspil forecasts passenger numbers to double in five years

The airport is planning to invest $400 million in infrastructure (Boryspil)

Ukraine’s largest airport Boryspil, in Kyiv, expects its traffic to add 1.5-2 million passengers per year, Deputy General Director Yevhen Dykhne has announced. Considering that in 2016 Boryspil handled 8.6 million passengers, its traffic is forecast to double within the next five years.

According to the forecast for 2017, the number of passengers traveling through the airport is to exceed the previous year’s figure by 1.5 million, Dykhne said. Further growth will be generated by Boryspil’s base carrier Ukraine International Airlines, which plans to add four Boeing 777 long-range widebodies to its fleet in 2018.

To cope with the forecast growth, Boryspil intends to invest around $400 million in infrastructure expansion. Half of this sum would come from the airport’s own funds. In 2016, the air gateway doubled its net income to 1.39 billion hryvnias ($54.7 million). Seven projects are outlined, with the highest-priority ones to be fully implemented in 2018. As early as this year, the airport will launch a new baggage claim area for domestic passengers worth nearly $1 million. The project is aimed at reducing the loads on the international baggage area.

Within the same timeframe, three boarding gates will be added to Terminal D from which buses will be taking passengers to their flights. The gates will increase the terminal’s throughput capacity by 390,000 passengers per hour. The airport is investing over $2 million in the project.

Another priority project is to expand the transit area. According to the plan, a three-storey building will be constructed adjacent to Terminal D, with a floor area of about 1,800 square meters. This will increase the airport’s transit capacity to 1,500 passengers per hour from the current 780. Over $5 million has been reserved for the project.

The list of modernization measures also includes the completion of a parking lot whose construction began back in 2011. The first section, for 1,018 parking slots, is to become operational next spring. It will be followed by the second section before the end of 2018. One possibility is to make room for a bus terminus within the second section. Total investment in this project is estimated at $27 million.

Further down the road, within the next two to three years, there are plans to expand the airside apron next to Terminal D and extend the adjacent gallery by 375 meters with six new gates, two of which will have two boarding exits. This will result in a capacity increase from the current 3,000 to 3,700 passengers per hour. The project is being evaluated; if approved by the regulating agencies, it will come with a price tag of $140 million.

Dykhne said that during the peak hours the airport cannot handle all of the aircraft on the apron in front of Terminal D, so some of them have to be served at remote stands. The airport’s management estimates that apron expansion will allow for reducing turn-around times from the current 40 minutes to 25-30 minutes.

Expansion is also planned for the central section of Terminal D, the one housing baggage processing equipment, offices, and other facilities. This project would further increase the terminal’s throughput capacity to 5,000 passengers per hour. The investment required is estimated at $77 million.

Within three to four years from now, Boryspil is planning to refurbish the second landing area by building a new runway next to the existing one, which was constructed in the early 1970s. The new runway would be able to accommodate enough aircraft movements to bring the airport’s annual passenger traffic up to 20 million. The reconstruction effort could cost approximately $200 million, likely in the form of a loan. The old runway will be eventually taken out of operation; the newer of the existing two, which is closer to Terminal D, will be refurbished eventually.