Spendthrift Shoestring

Ukraine Gets More LCC Action

On Wednesday, Wizz Air announced a Kyiv-London Luton route from December on; today, the airline announced a slew of routes in and out of Ukraine: Kyiv-Cologne, Kyiv-Dortmund, Lviv-Dortmund, and Lviv-London Luton.

Back in December, I forecasted the discovery of Ukraine by LCCs in 2008. I'm just surprised that it's taken so long to happen, and that the development of routes has been restricted to a trickle. I guess there is the whole aviation-industry-in-trouble thing to contend with.

Now when will Ryanair and Wizz Air start flying into Chisinau? That's the question.

Germanwings to Kyiv

I forecasted this one, however tentatively, back in December! Germanwings will fly from Berlin and Cologne/Bonn to Kyiv beginning in October. Thanks to Air Scoop for the buzz.

Ukraine Gets Cheap Flights

Back at the end of December, I predicted that 2008 would see further low-cost carrier expansion in Eastern Europe, with more routes into Romania and Bulgaria and the tentative development of routes into Ukraine and Moldova. I thought that we might see SkyEurope and even Ryanair beginning some routes to Kyiv by the end of the year.

But the first serious move comes from Hungarian Wizz Air, who will be launching seven Ukrainian domestic routes in July. Wizz Air's Ukraine hub will be Kyiv; they'll fly between the capital and L'viv, Kharkiv, Odessa, Simferopol, and Zaporizhia, and will also fly routes between Simferopol and both L'viv and Kharkiv. Details are here. The airline is not running any international routes in or out of Ukraine.