Ryanair flight to Crimea may sound like dream, but don’t rule it out

The Sun has published an article arguing that President Zelenskyy commits to a brighter economic future for Crimea as the counteroffensive breaks through to Robotyne in Ukraine’s south. Caliber.Az reprints the article.

Russian aviation does not instill great consumer confidence these days, but to be fair it possibly never did. The crash of a private Embraer jet yesterday with the Wagner group chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, reportedly on board was one sign of that, especially considering that the model has a good safety record. The suspension more than a year ago of the airline that turned charmlessness into a talking point, Aeroflot, from an aviation alliance that notably includes Delta Air Lines, SkyTeam, was another. 

Now, as surreal as it may seem, Ryanair is gearing up to restore its pre-invasion flight service to Ukraine and even expand it to the Crimean peninsula — just don’t tell Vladimir Putin. 

That is, of course, because the Russian strongman in 2014 gobbled up the strategic peninsula, which with its miles of Black Sea coastline and warm summer weather has long doubled as a popular holiday hotspot. Yet that act of avarice by no means hobbled travel and tourism in the rest of Ukraine prior to Moscow’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022. Until that time, Ryanair, the Irish low-cost airline, was the second-largest commercial airline in Ukraine, with service to airports at Kyiv, Lviv, and Odessa as well as at Kharkiv and Kherson. 

The visions that presidents Putin and Zelenskyy have for the future of Ukraine as a whole are as different as night and day, but as a measure of how largely looms the fate of Crimea, Ukraine has been stepping up its drone strikes on Russian military assets on the peninsula. Addressing the third Crimea Platform Summit this week, Mr. Zelenskyy said, “Throughout Crimea’s history, its ports and roads have been connected to Ukraine and the rest of the world. Russia has isolated Crimea. We will return the whole world to Crimea.”

“The post-war transformation of Ukraine will ensure economic changes for Crimea that will allow it to work and be economically attractive all year round, not just during the [summer] season,” he said, adding: “We are signing the first document with companies that are ready to come to Crimea following Ukraine … such companies as Ryanair and Royal Haskoning DHV have already announced their readiness to invest.”

During a visit to Kyiv last month, Ryanair’s iconoclastic CEO, Michael O’Leary, said, “Once the skies over Ukraine have reopened for commercial aviation, Ryanair will charge back into Ukraine linking the main Ukraine airports with over 20 EU capitals, and we are working closely with the Ukrainian government to rebuild Ukraine’s aviation, industry, and its economy.” 

In a press release, Ryanair stated that it “has committed to returning with low fare flights to and from Ukraine within eight weeks of the reopening of Ukraine air space” and that “will see 600 weekly flights being operated by Ryanair aircraft from the main airports of Kyiv, Lviv and Odesa.” The airline will also base up to 30 new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft worth more than $3 billion at Ukraine’s three main airports. 

When the Sun reached out to Ryanair for additional information about plans for Crimea, an airline representative had no specific comment. Mr. O’Leary, an airline industry heavyweight known for his brashness, is clearly upbeat on jump-starting business in Ukraine as a whole, and the main airports seem like a likely place to start. Yet talk of restoring service to places like Kharkiv may be premature. 

An acclaimed British architect, Norman Foster, reportedly had to backtrack on plans to rebuild Kharkiv, where as many as a quarter of the original buildings have been destroyed, because of a mix of practical and political considerations. Although the city is firmly back under Ukrainian control, it is relatively close to the Russian border and is subject to periodic Russian fire.

Ukraine has faced mounting criticism over the slow pace of its counteroffensive. Some of those concerns were outlined in a New York Times report and repeated by the chairman of the European Union’s military committee, Robert Brieger, who said he would be “cautious to expect a breakthrough of the Ukrainian forces through the Russian defence lines.”

Yet at a press conference following his speech, Mr. Zelenskyy rejected impatience with the counteroffensive.  Given that Russia has about 200,000 troops on the eastern front, he said if Ukraine starts shifting its own forces from the east it will make more towns vulnerable.  “[If we] take our armed forces from there, and transfer them somewhere,” then “I think, after that it will be the following, in a couple of days – Sloviansk, Kramatorsk; then they [the Russians] will go to Pavlohrad … I believe that is exactly the kind of hope they have. Then Kharkiv.”

“We will not give up either Kharkiv, nor Donbas, nor Pavlohrad, nor Dnipro,” Mr. Zelenskyy declared.

As a measure of that conviction, on August 23 Ukrainian forces raised the national flag at the settlement of Robotyne in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, near the strategic city of Melitopol that Ukraine seeks to recapture. 

As for Crimea, he said that it “will be de-occupied like all other parts of Ukraine that are unfortunately still under the occupier.” He added: “Russia’s activities in Crimea have led to the catastrophic destruction of ecosystems on the peninsula and in the surrounding waters. … Instead of terrorist bases, Crimea needs national parks and nature reserves. Instead of ammunition depots for aggression, it needs international cruise ships.”

And low-cost flights, with airlines like Ryanair, not to mention millions of war-weary Ukrainians, waiting in the wings.