SkyUp Airlines of Ukraine has been granted permission to operate three weekly flights to London from Kyiv starting today, Monday January 4th, for an unlimited period of time. Along with London, SkyUp has also been allowed to launch flights to 10 other destinations in Europe, mostly in Germany, but also in Czechia, France, and Montenegro.

SkyUp gets the rights to operate 11 new routes

The State Aviation Service of Ukraine held a meeting last week, on December 30th, to rearrange the rights to air transport of various Ukrainian airlines. Its commission decided to recommend to the Head of the State Aviation Service to grant SkyUp Airlines the rights to operate 11 new passenger services. Among them are flights from Kyiv to London. The Administration granted these rights for an unlimited time period.

The flights, along with the dates when the rights kick in, are:

  • Kyiv - London (UK) - Kyiv flights three times weekly, starting from today
  • Kyiv - Marseilles (France) - Kyiv two times weekly, starting April 6th 2021
  • Kyiv - Podgorica (Montenegro) - Kyiv three times weekly, starting March 28th 2021
  • Kyiv - Hamburg (Germany) - Kyiv three times weekly, starting March 28th 2021
  • Kyiv - Nuremberg (Germany) - Kyiv two times weekly, starting March 28th 2021
  • Kyiv - Hanover (Germany) - Kyiv three times weekly, starting March 28th 2021
  • Zaporozhye - Berlin (Germany) - Zaporozhye two times weekly, starting March 28th 2021
  • Lviv - Munich (Germany) - Lviv two times weekly, starting March 28th 2021
  • Odessa - Munich (Germany) - Odessa two times weekly, starting March 28th 2021
  • Kyiv - Brno (Czech Republic) - Kyiv two times weekly, starting April 25th 2021
  • Kyiv - Ostrava (Czech Republic) - Kyiv three times weekly, starting April 23th 2021
SkyUp
While SkyUp has been granted these rights, other airlines have had their rights revoked. Photo: Getty Images

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Bravo Airlines and Anda Air have their rights revoked

At the same time, Ukraine has revoked the rights for two other airlines. Bravo Airlines has lost the right to operate flights between Kyiv and London which it previously could do three times weekly. Bravo Airlines has also had its right to fly to Nuremberg five times weekly revoked. The rights for flights to London have been replaced like-for-like with the rights given to SkyUp, but the rights for flights to Nuremberg have not been matched in their weekly frequency.

At the same time, Anda Air has lost the right to operate flights from Kyiv to Nuremberg as well. It maintained the right to do so twice weekly.

Boeing 737-900ER UIA Ukraine
UIA is based at Boryspil International Airport (KBP) in Kyiv. Photo: Getty Images

Meanwhile, the much more widely-known airline in the country, Ukraine International Airlines, has recently stated that it aims to have restored its route network by summer 2021. 2020 has not been kind to Ukraine's flag carrier: apart from the blow dealt by covid, the airline also saw its Boeing 737 taken down over Iran a year ago. Iran admitted the deed and last month agreed to start paying out reparations.

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