UIA doubts flight to Toronto launched this year

Ukraine International Airlines (UIA, Kyiv) has expressed doubt that flights between Kyiv and Toronto are launched this year, Vice President for Commerce Serhiy Fomenko told reporters on Wednesday.

"Toronto this year is under question. Toronto is the most expensive airport in North America," he said.

Fomenko said that UIA successfully passed the aviation safety and technology audit of Canadian aviation authorities.

"Further we should push up or not push up administrative issues. It seems that everyone supports [the idea] but Canadian airlines are not in a hurry to launch active commercial agreements with UIA," he added.

Fomenko said that there were requests to support at a meeting with Canadian prime minister, in particular, certain beneficial conditions for one or two years from the start of flights performance.

"It takes time. The question has been asked, but there are no real answers," Fomenko said.

As reported, in January 2015 UIA received an official notification from the aviation authorities of Canada that the airline has passed the aviation safety audit and received a permit to perform flights to Canadian cities.

As a part of the realization of the long-haul flight program UIA planned to start performing transatlantic flights on the Kyiv-Toronto (Canada)-Kyiv route in the summer navigation period of 2015.

UIA was founded in 1992. It is the largest Ukrainian airline. The basic airport is Boryspil airport (Kyiv). The UIA fleet consists of 33 aircraft, mainly Boeing 767s.