Ukrainian low-cost airline SkyUp to debut at Katowice airport

Ukrainian low-cost airline SkyUp will debut at Katowice Airport this summer bringing the number of flights between the airport and seven destinations in Ukraine to a record 19 a week despite the severe disruption to air travel caused by the pandemic.

Piotr Adamczyk from the airport's press office said SkyUp, which intends to fly to Kiev-Boryspil every Thursday and Saturday, will launch its service on May 29 with tickets already available on the skyup.aero website.

SkyUp's connection to Kiev-Boryspil is the second connection to Ukraine recently announced by Katowice Airport. In the “Summer 2021” schedule, new routes are also planned by Hungarian budget airline Wizz Air. The inaugural flight to Zaporizhzhia, planned for every Tuesday and Saturday, is scheduled for March 30.

Adamczyk quoted the president of the airport's management board, Artur Tomasik, as saying: "Bearing in mind the coronavirus pandemic and its negative impact on the current condition of the aviation sector, we received with satisfaction the decision of Ukrainian airline SkyUp to launch connections from Katowice Airport to Kiev-Boryspil."

He added that Katowice was the first Polish regional airport from which a low-cost airline had launched connections to Ukraine when Wizz Air started flight to Kiev in January 2019.

Recent years have seen a rapid growth in flights to and from Katowice and Ukraine, with over 54,000 passengers flying in 2017 and a year later 100,000. In 2019, the number reached 154,000.

Due to the Covid-19 crisis, last year only 66,000 people flew between Katowice and Ukraine.

In the summer of 2021, SkyUp plans to run regular services covering 21 countries and over 60 routes, including from Kiev to Gdansk, Katowice and Lodz as well as from Lviv to Lodz. The airline has a fleet of 11 Boeing 737s.