Kyiv airports report traffic growth in January-June 2017

Passenger numbers increased 30% at Boryspil and 67.6% at Zhulyany (Zhulyany Airport)

Boryspil and Zhulyany airports, which serve Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv, demonstrated high passenger traffic growth rates in the first half of 2017. Traffic at Boryspil climbed 30%, whereas Zhulyany saw the number of passengers surge 67.6%.

Boryspil, the primary airport serving Kyiv, served 4.74 million passengers between January and June; this figure included 1.3 million transit passengers, or up 37% year-on-year. The traffic growth was partially spurred by a 24% increase in the number of aircraft movements to nearly 41,000 takeoffs and landings, the airport reports. Boryspil’s efforts to develop as a hub helped it increase the share of international flights by 22%.

Zhulyany processed 689,400 passengers in the first half of the year. The airport’s international traffic surged 64.3% to 653,700 passengers; domestic traffic hit 168.3% at 35,700 passengers. The number of aircraft movements increased 30.8% to 9,700. There were 7,800 aircraft movements on international flights, compared to 1,900 movements domestically. New carriers, new destinations, and increased frequencies contributed to the traffic growth, the airport officials say.

Zhulyany has also reported separately on its June operational results. The airport served 182,000 that month, up 73.8% tear-on-year. Of these, 174,100 passengers traveled internationally. The most popular international destinations included Minsk, Antalya and Ankara, Budapest, Rome, and Dubai. The highest passenger figures on domestic routes were for Odesa, Zaporizhzhya, and Lviv.

Ukraine secured a visa-free travel regime with the EU on June 11 this year. Zhulyany says it is as yet impossible to fully assess the effect of this development on the airport’s business, but notes that the results might become evident in the end-of-the-year statistics.

Ukrainian airlines have also reported passenger traffic growth. In January through May, they carried a total of 3.47 million passengers, up 42.5% on the same period last year.