In Warsaw, Ukraine made a presentation of the road map for the opening of airspace under martial law.
Points of attention
- Ukraine recently presented a road map for opening airspace under martial law in Warsaw, gathering key representatives from the aviation industry.
- The Minister of Community and Territorial Development highlighted the complexities involved in opening airspace and the importance of collaboration with various stakeholders.
- The event showcased a step-by-step plan and requirements for the partial opening of airspace, emphasizing the assessment of risks and air navigation safety.
- Key industry players and regulators, including airlines, airports, and aviation services agencies, participated in the expert discussion in support of Ukraine's efforts to restore civil aviation.
- The discussions also included coordination mechanisms for civil and military aviation, highlighting the readiness of airports such as Boryspil International Airport and Lviv International Airport.
Ukraine is preparing to open airspace
The event gathered about a hundred representatives of the aviation industry — relevant regulators of the European Union, Great Britain and the USA, management of Ukrainian and foreign airlines that previously operated flights in Ukraine, insurance and leasing companies, aircraft manufacturers.
Oleksiy Kuleba, Minister of Community and Territorial Development, emphasized that the opening of airspace "is a very difficult issue both from the point of view of security and from the point of view of interaction with all involved parties"
This is the first expert discussion, which we expect will help to move forward in creating the conditions for opening up the airspace. In times of war, it is a strategic challenge for us to preserve aviation infrastructure and skilled personnel so that when the time comes, we can resume civilian flights as quickly as possible.
Oleksiy Kuleba
Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine
Economic Counselor of the US Embassy in Ukraine Mary Elizabeth Madden noted the importance of supporting Ukraine in efforts to restore civil aviation and the readiness of the United States of America to provide expert and technical assistance.
Ukraine's plan to open airports during the war
In Warsaw, Deputy Minister Serhiy Derkach presented a step-by-step plan and requirements for the partial opening of airspace.
The assessment of risks for civil aviation was prepared by the State Aviation Service, the document was presented by the first deputy chairman Serhii Korshuk. Director of Ukraerorukh Andriy Yarmak reported on the peculiarities of air navigation safety and the readiness of the air navigation system.
In addition, Oleksiy Dubrevskyi, Director General of Boryspil International Airport, and Tetiana Romanovska, Director General of Danylo Halytskyi Lviv International Airport, spoke about the readiness of the airports.
Mechanisms of coordination of civil and military aviation were presented by Oleg Zakharchuk, deputy commander of the Air Command "Center" for aviation — chief of aviation.
The Polish Air Navigation Services Agency, AirBaltic, Austrian Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, SkyUp Airlines, Skyline Express, SprintAir, Supernova Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Wizz Air, AerCap, Boeing, Marsh McLennan, Deloitte Ukraine and others also joined the expert discussion.
We will remind you that in 2023 there was a lot of talk about the fact that it might be worth opening one of the airports in Ukraine. In particular, the possibility of opening the Lviv airport on the example of the grain corridor was discussed.
At the beginning of 2024, Ukraine officially began negotiations with the regulators of the USA and the European Union regarding the resumption of passenger air transportation in our country. The government stated that at the level of plans there are different scenarios regarding the number of airports that can be opened in Ukraine.
