New Pathway – Ukrainian News.
For several years, anyone travelling from Canada to Ukraine had to use connection flights. Not since June 2018, when Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) launched its direct flight from Toronto to Kyiv.
To launch this flight seems to have been a natural business decision for UIA given the 1.4M strong Ukrainian Canadian community. The decision proved to be a right one – the YYZ-KBP route over the past 12 months has enjoyed an average 90% load factor, very respectable by industry standards. In the peak season, UIA decided to increase the number of flights from three to four weekly. Growth has developed to the point that the Boeing 767-300 service on the route was upgraded to Boeing 777 for the mid period of 2019 with the objective to make this permanent as soon as feasible operationally.
Welcome to UIA’s B777
However, this flight is not only attractive to Ukrainians. As Karl Müller, Director of AirlinePros Canada, the commercial representative for UIA in Canada, pointed out for NP-UN on June 19, about 60% of the total number of passengers on this flight travel beyond Ukraine. They have been going to such destinations as Warsaw, Istanbul, Tel-Aviv, Amman and Delhi, among many others.
This means that if previously many people had travelled to Ukraine through Warsaw and Istanbul, now many foreigners use this flight for its attractive airfares and UIA’s vast route network with efficient connectivity at the Kyiv Boryspil International Airport. In addition to destinations in 40 countries, UIA offers connections to ten Ukrainian cities, including Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Odesa, Chernivtsi and Dnipro. Müller noted that the Boryspil airport has been renovated and extended in the recent years and now offers world-class facilities and “seamless” connections, everything within easy walking distance.
To facilitate travel for people beyond the GTA area, UIA has cooperation agreements with Air Canada and West Jet. Even US-based passengers have been seeking the Toronto route for its convenience.
UIA’s Boeing 777: Business Class section
“Nothing short of remarkable!” This is how Karl Müller described the results of the route’s first year during a special event held on June 19 at the Toronto Pearson Airport and attended by media, travel agents and Ukrainian Canadian community representatives. Müller pointed out that “the market results have been remarkably better than initially expected or planned for.”
All present were brought on board the Boeing 777 which currently serves the YYZ-KBP route in order to see first-hand and appreciate the classes of service (Business, PremiumEconomy and Economy) and display of catering offerings.
We at NP-UN can reassure you that the leg room in economy class is within the best expectations. And we were assured that UIA flight attendants offer greetings and communication to their passengers in Ukrainian language.
On behalf of UIA, the commemoration was overseen by Karl Müller and Ira Koliuda – Sales Manager for UIA in Canada.
You can buy tickets for UIA's flights to Ukraine here.
With material by AirlinePros.
AirlinePros is NP-UN’s advertising client
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