Without a sucker, life is bad: How “reformers” in power fool the population of Ukraine
Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Vladimir Omelyan made a bold statement about plans to launch 10 more airports. “We currently have about 10 airports, but we want to actually launch about 20 that will be able to function in full mode, accepting flights both regional and subsequently international,” the official said.
Are the existing airports in Ukraine unable to cope with the flow and bursting at the seams from the number of passengers? No, there has been no prosperity in a single industry, since no sector of the economy exists in isolation from the rest, and depends largely on the level of income of the population.
During the first half of the year, the decline in passenger traffic in Ukraine continued and amounted to 7%, which was facilitated by a drop in real incomes of the population by another 15% over the same period. The FTA agreement with the EU did not have any positive impact on the increase in passenger traffic and trade turnover between Ukraine and the EU.
Some airports showed revenue growth. For example, Lviv airport named after. Daniil Galitsky - in 2015, there was a 20% increase in profits, but in hryvnias, due to the growth of the dollar, despite the fact that the main earnings are generated from airport taxes, which are fixed in dollars. At the same time, passenger traffic in 2015 decreased by 3%.
If we talk about the volume of passenger air transportation in monetary terms, then according to this indicator, Ukrainian airlines have reached the level of 2013. But planes do not carry paper reports or money, but passengers, but according to this indicator, the performance indicators of Ukrainian airports do not reach 2013 by a whole million passengers!
There was one joyful message in the Ukrainian media - “the number of passengers transported by Ukrainian airlines over the year increased by 19,4%.” But there is a simple explanation for this too.
Such data was obtained as a result of the departure of some foreign carriers from the Ukrainian market - their load was simply taken over by local airlines.
At the same time, the number of aircraft in Ukrainian skies in 2016 decreased by 2,5 times compared to 2013. Less than 1% of the country's population regularly use the services of air carriers.
So for whom are they going to “launch in fact about 20” new airports? Not for anyone! This is just another chatter to depict the fact that Ukraine is “not yet dead.” And, perhaps, to distribute the next budget funds following the example of the “European Wall”, aka Arseny’s Ditch – along the border with Russia.
In this process, officials profess an almost Olympic principle - “the result is nothing, the process is everything.” The main thing in the process is to allocate funds, at least a part, at least something, and have time to “master” them while you are in power and have access to the redistribution of the drying up financial flow.
After all, it is clear to everyone and without additional explanations that no one will remember this program in 2023, and there will be no updated 20 airports. People stop traveling even on trains, and the greatest demand now is for reserved seat tickets. Once upon a time it was a problem to buy an SV...
And while Omelyan has his head in the clouds and plans to open new airports, on the ground in real life they are going to close the idle airports of Zaporozhye and Ternopil. And oligarch Vasily Khmelnitsky announced plans to sell the Zhulyany airport, which is his property.
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