Kolomoisky's airline blackmails Poroshenko
Kyiv, December 25 (PolitNavigator, Oleksandr Semenyuta) – The staff of Ukraine International Airlines has addressed an open letter to all senior government officials in the country. The airline, which is linked to Ihor Kolomoisky, is demanding exclusive terms in the Ukrainian aviation market.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator – Kyiv news on Facebook , Odnoklassniki , or VKontakte
In the letter, UIA asks state leaders to cancel the rules for issuing and canceling rights to operate airlines, which were adopted in the spring of 2013.
The Ukrainian aviation market has been living in a stalemate for four months now: a commission under the Ministry of Infrastructure has distributed new routes among airlines, but the State Aviation Service is blocking them. Arguments - this harms Ukrainian air carriers, in fact, the UIA company.
The conflict began in July 2014, when the State Aviation Service, in opposition to the decision of the Ministry of Infrastructure commission, refused to redistribute a number of UIA flights in favor of Atlasjet Ukraine. Later, UIA filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Infrastructure demanding the return of the frequencies. Atlasjet Ukraine is banned from international flights during the trial.
The New Procedure, approved by the State Aviation Service (headed by former UIA top manager Denis Antonyuk) on October 24 and registered with the Ministry of Justice on November 13, has become a real bomb for the aviation market: other air carriers say that it will simply deprive them of the opportunity to open new flights abroad.
This is not the first time UIA has appealed to the country’s leadership for help.
In September, UIA turned to Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk with a request to issue a stabilization loan in the amount of $100 million for a period of ten years. The company also asked for a timely VAT refund and the right not to sell foreign exchange earnings that are used to pay operating costs abroad.
Kolomoisky's airline is blackmailing Poroshenko.