Eighteen miles east of capital city Kiev, Boryspil International Airport is on a mission. The Northern Ukraine airport is already the largest in the country, serving 65% of Ukraine’s air travel customers. It is now looking to build on two years of strong growth by bringing in more low-cost carriers to take it to the next level, CEO Pavlo Riabikin has told Routesonline.

Pavlo said: “Boryspil has very good prospects. We are showing good growth and have an excellence reputation – last year we were rated as the number three fastest-growing airport in Eastern Europe.” Should the airport grow passenger numbers by the projected 25% to 30% this year, it will hit the landmark of 10 million passengers.

Ukraine as a country has undergone more than its fair share of troubles in recent years, as has been well publicised. However, with a stable political climate now in place, optimism abounds that potential airline partners and travellers alike are growing in confidence, making the future bright for Boryspil.

The drive for low-cost carriers

Boryspil provides all of Ukraine’s intercontinental travel, and the majority of its international routes too. It has a decent foothold with the main national carriers, featuring names such as Air France, British Airways and Lufthansa, but has yet to make much headway in the budget market that has emerged in recent years.

Ryanair and El Al’s low-cost brand UP are the only low-cost carriers already using Boryspil, but plans to add to that are taking shape.

As Pavlo said: “We are now working on the model to invite low-cost carriers. It will be difficult, but we are going to try to achieve it; it’s a major challenge for us in the next year.”

It’s hard to overstate the attractiveness of low-cost carriers (LCCs) in building passenger numbers. The best known among them have the largest short-haul networks of any carriers, and being able to use more adaptable business models, have filled in gaps that the traditional carriers can’t cover. Not just leisure travel, but business travel has been improved by the advent of low-cost carriers and their increasing reach across the world’s growing economies.

So Boryspil is getting on the front foot in its bid to attract more carriers. Incentives are in place - and might be about to become more attractive yet. Pavlo said: “Airlines are welcome. We have now a new incentive programme for airlines offering a huge incentive discount for new routes, from 75% discount for the first year of operations and 50% for the next year and 25% for the third year.

“But we are now in discussions to make this 80%, 60% and 40% and 20% for the fourth year. It’s our vision to get a new carrier and a new destination.”

The recent additions to the airport have been centred around outbound traffic to Turkey, Egypt and the Middle East.

The top three destinations for 2016 were Israel’s largest airport, Ben Gurion International in Tel Aviv, followed by Istanbul Ataturk and key Western Europe hub Paris Charles de Gaulle. Frankfurt and Amsterdam Schiphol, other key hub airports, were also in the top ten.

The main carriers for Boryspil in 2016 were led by some distance by, unsurprisingly, Ukraine International Airlines, which carried just short of 2.9 million passengers. Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines and Royal Dutch-KLM were next in line.

Building the future

In terms of Boryspil’s growth, transit passengers have been the fastest growing segment of the market. Both domestic and point-to-point traffic are also growing, with good improvement shown in 2017.

Boryspil is not standing still. Pavlo acknowledges that the airport needs to make improvements all round to boost its appeal, and outlines a plan that includes improving connectivity on the ground, giving passengers more appealing terminals to use, and in improving the airport’s cargo capacity. Chief among the challenges is bringing in a quicker link to the city of Kiev, adding rail to the road transport Boryspil is currently reliant on.

He says: “To achieve the growth we want we have to address problems with connectivity to the city - right now, we have only car and bus connections, so our next challenge is to get a rail connection. That’s not only the responsibility of the airport but also for the city and railway administrations, and we are now in discussions for how to do it.”

Such a link could add robustness, reducing the pressure on the roads and parking capacity at the airport and giving passengers the option of accessing the city by another means. Rail links generally offer faster travel time and better connectivity to the key central business and leisure areas of a city. Use of rail reduces the pollution impact of an airport, and also makes it easier for customers from across the country to access the airport for outbound flights. Adding a rail link seems like a win-win.

A deadline has been set for the improvement on the cargo side. Pavlo says: “We are also growing in cargo and we see our capacity in the cargo terminal as being only enough for the next two or three years. In a maximum of three years we want a new cargo terminal.”

The existing two passenger terminals at Boryspil are also coming under examination, and the possibility is that one of them could in time come to specialise in the low-cost traffic Pavlo is so keen to build – work is currently underway as to how to remodel the facilities, as Pavlo says: “We also have two old terminals which we are now examining. One of these might be transformed to accommodate the low-cost traffic.”