After eight years of standstill, planes are once again taking off from the airport in Kherson

The airport in Kherson is in direct competition with Simferopol’s airport

Photo: Getty Images

The annexation of Crimea gave Kheson Airport a second chance. The airport was basically at a standstill for eight years, but last week Turkish Airlines launched flights from Kherson to Istanbul. Assistant Director of the Airport Yuriy Sydoryuk said within a month the air carrier will perform four flights a week and a month after that will perform daily flights depending on the increase in demand. The flights to Istanbul are practically fully loaded, while the tickets are sold a week in advance.

The Kherson-Istanbul flight became the first harbinger after the airport resumed its operations. An interlocutor of the publication said regular internationals flights on the Kherson-Tashkent route should start in November. He said Uzbekistan Airways will transport passengers.

Russia and Israel next on the runway

Crimean Tatars that historically have many familial ties with Turkey and Uzbekistan often fly to these countries, says Sydoryuk. As a reminder, after the annexation of Crimea all flights out of the airport in Simferopol except those in the direction of Russia were cancelled. The Kherson airport is 200 km closer to Simferopol than Odesa. Sydoryuk hopes that the airport administration will manage to attract not only passengers from Crimea, but also from the Kherson, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhya oblasts.

In order to do so, the airport plans to expand the list of destinations. Sydoryuk said the airport is currently holding talks with several Russian airlines so that next spring flights to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg are launched.

In addition, talks are being held with Israeli air transporters on introducing flights to Israel. An interlocutor of Capital declined from stating the name of the airline, though he noted that Ukraine International Airlines and UTair-Ukraine are so far not interested in flights out of Kherson.

Chances are slim to none

The airport in Kherson cannot substitute for the airport in Simferopol in such short terms, member of the Supervisory Council of the Ukrainian Logistics Association Artur Vynyukov-Proshchenko says. Some clients are reorienting themselves towards Odesa.

«One must keep in mind that to travel from Crimea to Kherson, passengers must cross the border, which is rather complicated for residents of Crimea,» Assistant General Director of Commercial On-line Service Tickets.ua Viktor Voitsekhovskiy added. Russian airlines flying from Simferopol frequently offer so-called low social rates for flights from Crimea, he reminded. The airport in Kherson will have a tough time competing with this discount rate.

«The best I can predict for Kherson Airport is development in the summer months of the tourism season in 2015,» Director of the Styl Avia tourist agency Yevhen Khainatskiy said. The Henichesk county, Skadovsk and the Zalizniy Port in the Kherson oblast are alternatives to Crimea.

These resorts are tourism vacation havens that unfortunately close in the fall, though they can give impetus to prolonging the flow of tourists in the winter months to certain destinations, says Khainatskiy. After that it will be possible to predict the future of the airport, including the destinations and frequency of flights and the interest of tourists in this region.