LONDON – According to Interfax, Russia’s war against Ukraine has destroyed 12 airports since the start of the conflict.
This was mentioned by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the World Economic Forum in Davos, who went into detail about the overall devastation and restoration need in Ukraine.
“The first [of four stages] is to restore more than 200 factories and large enterprises, 12 airports, and more than 1,000 educational institutions, as well as almost 300 bridges and overpasses that were damaged, destroyed, or captured as a result of hostilities due to the Russian war against Ukraine”.
It is understood that the overall economic damage caused by the Russians to Ukraine is valued at around $600bn.
Aviation Impacts for Ukraine…
Let’s take a look back at the aviation impacts on Ukraine since the conflict began.
This all started when both SkyUp Airlines and Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) had to stop the sales of tickets following insurance & lessor withdrawals.
Then, as the conflict intensified, it was revealed that a technical building at Kyiv’s Boryspil International Airport was hit by a Russian missile.
It was then announced by SkyUp that it would be offering 15 of its aircraft for wet-lease just to remain afloat in the wake of uncertainty.
At the time, UIA had also announced flight suspensions until mid-April initially, although this has now gone on for longer.
By that point, the Antonov Company began a crowdfunding project following the destruction of its flagship AN-225 Mriya aircraft in Gostomel.
In that same week, it had also emerged that the AN-124 had been destroyed alongside the Mriya in Gostomel.
Then, around three weeks ago, in some level of hope for UIA, airBaltic agreed on a wet-lease to operate one of its Boeing 737-900ER aircraft, which would bring in some revenue for the carrier.
Finally, around two weeks ago, the Antonov Company then confirmed its intentions to move its operations over to Leipzig Halle Airport, with no timeframe on how long this will be.
There are of course more events surrounding the aviation side, but these are probably the larger bits of news that have come out of the crisis thus far.
Overall…
Even without looking at the aviation side of things, it is becoming clear what the scale of destruction looks like for Ukraine, and it is a sad thing to think about.
Restoration is of course the next priority for the Ukrainians, especially when and if the conflict comes to some form of closure.
This will of course be something the aviation industry will stand to remember for many years to come, as this conflict has produced significant damage elsewhere as well.
From rising fuel prices to overall costs as well, this is a rare event that will no doubt hinder the level of recovery the sector wishes to make off the back of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, this, of course, will be interesting to watch.
