Ukraine Expands its Main Air Gateway

KYIV, Ukraine, May 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

The new terminal at Boryspil International Airport in Kyiv will service up to 15 million visitors per year, making its total channel capacity comparable to that of the Dublin Airport. The President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych labeled the completion of the venue as "another small victory" for Ukraine as EURO 2012 motivated the country to step up its infrastructure development efforts.

The total area of terminal D is 107 thousand square meters - making it the largest terminal in Ukraine. Boryspil's terminal B is over 36 thousand square meters large, and the recently opened terminal F - 21 thousand. Comparatively, the only passenger transfer complex of Warsaw Chopin Airport - terminal A - has the total area of 110 thousand square meters.

Terminal D construction cost USD 600 million and took three and a half years. The terminal is equipped with 11 jet bridges that enable servicing of up to six large (wide-body Boeing 747) and five medium (narrow-body Boeing 737) jets at any given time. This allows the site to service 20 planes at a time, increasing schedule flexibility of the airport.

As many modern European airports, the new terminal has  moving sidewalks - travelators - that would allow passengers move across the airport more comfortably. Notably, the capacity of the baggage handling system installed at terminal D is 3,000 items per hour. This is higher than average BHS capacity at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (2,733 bags per hour).

Renewal of Boryspil infrastructure is part of Ukraine's effort to accommodate the increasing number of passengers arriving to the country for EURO 2012. Recently, Boryspil airport presented new terminal F, designed to receive 2,400 passengers per hour. Currently, the major international airport in Kyiv handles 62 percent of passenger traffic in the country.

Preparing for EURO 2012, Ukraine also built new airport terminals in all other EURO 2012 host cities - Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Lviv as well as in the second airport in Kyiv - Zhuliany, increasing their channel capacity and improving the runway and infrastructure. Remarkably, the International Civil Aviation Organization granted Donetsk airport the ICAO III A category, allowing it to accept landings at zero visibility conditions.