Ukraine’s Windrose Airlines’ passenger traffic grew by 11.2 per cent last year

Windrose Airlines currently operates a fleet of five Airbus A321s and an A320 on charter flights, and uses five Embraer 145s for scheduled and international services, plans to introduce ATR 72s for domestic services later this year (Windrose)

Ukraine’s predominantly international leisure charter carrier Windrose Airlines carried 1.44 million passengers in 2019, a 11.2 per cent improvement on the previous year. Thus far, it is the only Ukrainian airline to have published its operational results for last year, according to avianews.com outlet.

The bulk of Windrose’s passengers – 1.18 million, up 8.1 per cent on 2018 – used its charter services, with the remaining passengers divided between scheduled international flights (203,600 passengers, up 30.9 per cent) and domestic (63,200 passengers, up 17.2 per cent).

The airline’s share of charter traffic thus remained at 81.5 per cent, whilst scheduled international and domestic services generated 14.1 and 4.4 per cent respectively of the airline’s entire passenger traffic. Its seat load factor ratio improved by 0.9 percentage points, reaching 91.9 per cent.

Last year, in line with the strategic expansion of its domestic services, the Kyiv-headquartered Windrose signed a letter of intent for eight ATR 72-600s, and is planning for their entry into service between 2020 and 2022.

Established in 2003, Windrose Airlines currently operates a fleet of five Airbus A321s and an A320 on charter flights, and uses five Embraer 145s for scheduled and international services, including those operated on behalf of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA), the country’s flag carrier.

Both Windrose and UIA are believed to be under the control of Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.

Ukraine’s airlines collectively carried some 13.72 million passengers last year, a 9.5 per cent increase over 2018’s traffic results, according to preliminary data supplied by the country’s State Aviation Administration. Growth in the country’s airline passenger numbers slowed in 2019 compared to an 18.7 per cent improvement in the year before.