Seems Ryanair has fallen out with authorities in Ukraine before services even begin.

The airline was due to start routes to several airports from Lviv and 4 routes from Kiev Boryspil. However my it is reported Ryanair wanted 80% off fees, to which the airports were unwilling to facilitate, and thus, all Ukraine routes pulled off sale.

A few different versions:
https://www.kyivpost.com/business/ryana ... raine.html
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/tra ... -1.3149882
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2017/07 ... raine.html

From Reuters/NYT:

"Kiev airport has ... chosen to protect high fare airlines and deprive Ukrainian consumers/visitors access to Europe’s lowest air fares," Ryanair said in a statement on Monday.

So Ryanair admits that they can't compete in a fair fight?

It is sometimes the case that Ryanair will require very low fees from an airport in the full knowledge that these conditions cannot be met. The result is that Ryanair claims some form of non-compliance with a contract and then have a face saving way of exitint the airport.
Has Ryanair decided for one reaason or another that they no longer wish to fly to Ukrainian airports and are just looking for an escape route ? I could imagine that with Air Berlin and Alitalia both in deep problems, Ryanair might want to be able to deploy aircraft to Germany and Italy at short notice instead of them being used on routes to/from Ukraine

redzeppelin wrote:

So Ryanair admits that they can't compete in a fair fight?

No, FR admits it has his business model, which works in certain conditions/times/circumstances. And is obviously not worth it if it is not allowed, and force to pretend it work in the same model/structure than legacies. I call that bullying FR, not a fair fight.

According to local journalist Maxim Eristavi, once the Ukrainian transport minister Volodymyr Omelyan heard about this, he went nuts about it as it informally brakes Ukraine's image as country open for business. https://twitter.com/MaximEristavi/statu ... 0123598848.

Wizzair has already offered covering flights for stranded passengers https://book.wizzair.com/en-GB/about_us/news/wizzen602

To all A.Net readers, one thing I will warn to everyone. Be prepared for a lot of fake news about this from various putinbots (trolls from Olgino) e.g, allegations that Ukraine is unsafe or that FR didn't get the insurance etc.

This is because this is quite a propaganda coup for the Kremlin.

smallvoyageur wrote:

To all A.Net readers, one thing I will warn to everyone. Be prepared for a lot of fake news about this from various putinbots (trolls from Olgino) e.g, allegations that Ukraine is unsafe or that FR didn't get the insurance etc.

This is because this is quite a propaganda coup for the Kremlin.

Huh? Seems like some people here on A.net are really losing their marbles.

How is the LCC market in Ukraine generally at the moment?

Aeroflot777 wrote:

smallvoyageur wrote:

To all A.Net readers, one thing I will warn to everyone. Be prepared for a lot of fake news about this from various putinbots (trolls from Olgino) e.g, allegations that Ukraine is unsafe or that FR didn't get the insurance etc.

This is because this is quite a propaganda coup for the Kremlin.

Huh? Seems like some people here on A.net are really losing their marbles.

Well I wouldn't be surprised, trolling from Russia does exist, it can be pretty aggressive sometimes.

Its Ukraines loss , they've got a long to go before they're ready for any EU membership deal

Galwayman wrote:

Its Ukraines loss , they've got a long to go before they're ready for any EU membership deal

I didn't know that pleasing Ryanair was a condition.

However, did they start to sell tickets for those flights? If so, passengers are entitled to be rebooked on other flights as per EU directive 261/04. I can see FR kicking over those rebooking rights, as usual when same law is to be applied to them as to the competitors.

Another point, will we see more capacity at RZE, LUZ airports in Poland, just 100 km from the Ukrainian border?

smallvoyageur wrote:

To all A.Net readers, one thing I will warn to everyone. Be prepared for a lot of fake news about this from various putinbots (trolls from Olgino) e.g, allegations that Ukraine is unsafe or that FR didn't get the insurance etc.

This is because this is quite a propaganda coup for the Kremlin.

Ukraine is a highly corrupt market, perhaps the most corrupt in Europe. The world bank ranks it As the most difficult European country to do business in.

Ryanair obviously decided that this was taking up too much time, and decided to focus elsewhere.

Wizz Air will be rubbing their hands with glee, especially since Ryanair has knocked them off their perch in Sofia and Bucharest. They sunk a lot of money into Ukraine before the conflict began.

Ukraine's infrastructure minister said on Tuesday he would seek to sack the head of Kiev's main airport after Irish low-cost airline Ryanair cancelled plans to fly to Ukraine for the first time over alleged protectionism in talks.

Ukraine wants to resume talks with the low-cost Irish airline Ryanair, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said on Tuesday, after the airline canceled plans to begin flights to Kiev this year.

Asked if Ryanair would change its mind on quitting Ukraine, a spokesman for the airline said, "We will only reconsider flights to or from Ukraine should our agreements be honored."

Sources:
http://www.reuters.com/article/ryanair- ... SL8N1K21UT
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ryana ... SKBN19W0WY

smallvoyageur wrote:

To all A.Net readers, one thing I will warn to everyone. Be prepared for a lot of fake news about this from various putinbots (trolls from Olgino) e.g, allegations that Ukraine is unsafe or that FR didn't get the insurance etc.

This is because this is quite a propaganda coup for the Kremlin.

Now all the "democratic community" is paranoid. FR and KBP couldn't figure out their financial stuff - and even this is Kremlin's little deeds...

konrad wrote:

Another point, will we see more capacity at RZE, LUZ airports in Poland, just 100 km from the Ukrainian border?

A few Urakinians are already doing that. But not many. This doesn't take away virtually any business from PS.

BestWestern wrote:

Ukraine is a highly corrupt market, perhaps the most corrupt in Europe. The world bank ranks it As the most difficult European country to do business in.

Ryanair obviously decided that this was taking up too much time, and decided to focus elsewhere.

Known matter. All Ukrainian aviation authorities are sort of "owned" by the same oligarchs that own PS. In the past they had conflicts with TK and LH in Dnipropetrovsk airport, playing tricks on them to make them cancel already scheduled flights there (e.g. "Cannot accept your flights due to runway repairs"). And Ukrainian market is extremely low yielding, almost no business traffic. And PS after the 2014 coup went "no frills" route, with buy-on-board and luggage fees.

Meanwhile Wizz have been more than happy to come to the rescue!

Rescue fares for stranded Ryanair passengers on Ukraine flights

https://book.wizzair.com/en-GB/about_us/news/wizzen602

The airline also announced a third based aircraft and two new routes from Kyiv to Tallinn and Lisbon next spring.