The Eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk is proud to be hosting this year’s Routes CIS event and this can be clearly seen when you speak to Kirill Osypov, Director General of Donetsk’s Sergey Prokofiev International Airport and a key player in the city hosting what is expected to be a record number of delegates for the regional forum, now in its third year.

The British educated executive has played in a role in many of the Ukraine’s recent success. He was formerly a consultant with International Management Consulting Company, Scott Wilson, where he worked to bring Kiev’s national stadium up to the standards required for the successful Euro 2012 Football Championships that country shared with Poland.

He was also involved in Public Relations and Marketing functions with the National Agency for the implementation of the tournament, a period during which he successfully attracted foreign investors to Ukraine and participated in the development of Ukrainian legislation to get tax-exempt status for foreign investors in the hotel industry.

Now it is all about aviation and in his role as Director General at Sergey Prokofiev International Airport he is already working on a strategy that could benefit much of Eastern Ukraine. This has seen investment upgrading the airport for Euro 2012 turned into an effective platform for economic development and a policy that has already secured an operating base from Wizz Air Ukraine, which will open later this year.

Speaking to The HUB at the Official Routes CIS Welcome Reception at the Shakhtar Plaza Hotel Courtyard, Osypov said: “Sergey Prokofiev International is an ultramodern facility with high capacity, fitted with equipment from the world's leading manufacturers and one of the best runways in Europe. Over the last year we have been able to achieve a lot we have successfully developed cooperation with airlines, particularly the regional base of low-cost carrier Wizz Air Ukraine. We are also opening new routes and the frequency of flights on existing routes is increasing”.

Even during the early stages of the Routes CIS event Osypov is confident that it will leave a legacy for Donetsk and educate the over 260 delegates to the opportunities that exist in the city, the wider region and the whole of Ukraine. “We appreciate the trust expressed to us by the organisers of the event and we consider it a big honour and responsibility to host Routes CIS and welcome the aviation industry as a whole. In my opinion allowing us the opportunity to act as the host of such a key event is a decent assessment for the work that we have done in a very short period of time,” he said.

“Route development is one of the main priorities, not only in the development strategy of our airport but also for regional and state policy of aviation segment modernisation. I am sure that the hosting of Routes CIS 2013 will be one of the steps in our development strategy realisation. To have some many aviation professionals here in the city is really inspiring and we look forward with great excitement to developing relationships with them for future development,” he added.

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