Ryanair explained the cancellation of planned entry into Ukrainian market

"Ryanair announced that it has cancelled its planned entry into Ukraine following Kyiv airport’s failure to honour a growth agreement reached at the Ministry of Infrastructure with airport officials and the current Airport Director General, Mr Riabikin, in March of this year", - BBC reports.

"Kyiv airport has instead chosen to protect high fare airlines (including Ukraine International Airlines) and deprive Ukrainian consumers/visitors access to Europe’s lowest air fares and widest route network. As a result, Ryanair has no choice but to cancel 4 new Kyiv routes and 7 new Lviv routes, which will result in the loss of over 500 000 passengers and 400 jobs", - it was stated.

“Ryanair sincerely apologises to the many customers who have booked low fare flights to/from the Ukraine, all of whom will be contacted by email and refunded for their cancelled flights. We regret also that Lviv Airport has fallen victim to Kyiv Airport’s decision", - Ryanair's Chief Commercial Officer, David O'Brien said in an official statement posted on the company's website.

The report says that on July 10, the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Volodymyr Omelyan spoke about this step of Ryanair. He reported on the conflict around the airport Boryspil and Ryanair, who could not agree on the conditions of work.

According to the minister, the airport management delayed negotiations with the air carrier.

Earlier, the director general of the Boryspil Airport, Pavlo Riabikin, said that the airport, as a state-owned enterprise, did not benefit from a contract with Ryanair and declared political pressure.

"I read a lot of reviews of the situation with Ryanair. I have a question to those who are inclined to the theory of the Boryspil-UIA-Kolomoisky conspiracy. What exactly happened in Zhuliany airport? Two months of negotiations and the same result! There was no "conspiracy"!", - Riabikin wrote on Facebook.

New flights from airports in Kyiv and Lviv were to be conducted in the autumn of 2017. Ukraine was the 34th destination of the company.

Ryanair was expected to conduct flights from Kyiv to London, Manchester, Stockholm and Eindhoven. Flights from Lviv were to be performed to Eindhoven, London, Berlin, Wroclaw, Memmingen, Krakow and Budapest.

As reported, the Director General of Boryspil airport Pavlo Riabikin said that Ryanair proposed requirements, which do not comply with Ukrainian legislation. At the same time, Minister Omelyan suggested that interference to Ryanair's arrival in Ukraine is due to unwillingness of open competition from the largest Ukrainian state-owned company UIA, which owed the budget about $15.4 million.