Ryanair CEO arrives at Kiev's Borispol Airport

MOSCOW. July 20 (Interfax) - The CEO of Ireland's Ryanair, Europe's largest low-cost air carrier, Michael O'Leary, arrived at Borispol International Airport on Thursday, Ukrainian media reported, citing Ukrainian Railways, or Ukrzaliznytsia.

"While no planes are flying to Borispol, Ukrzaliznytsia is kindly delivering Ryanair's management to Borispol," the company said on social media.

O'Leary has been in charge of Ryanair since 1994, and Ryanair has been Ukraine's second largest airline before the crisis.

Three weeks before the crisis broke out O'Leary announced his airline's plans for a large-scale expansion in Ukraine, before the Open Skies Treaty with the European Union took effect. Fifteen to 20 planes were planned to be parked in five Ukrainian airports.

At the same time, Ryanair managed to announce new 13 routes from Ukraine in the 2022 summer schedule, under which the airline planned to operate a total of 90 routes from Ukraine.

As reported, Ukraine completely closed its airspace to civilian aircraft on February 24, 2022.

In April this year, O'Leary said Ryanair stood ready to quickly resume operations in Ukraine once it becomes safe again to fly in the country, having opened 30 routes and built several bases in a year. "We could fly there in about two weeks. We're actively looking at ways and looking where we can charge back into Ukraine," O'Leary said at the time. He noted that the company had hired about 60 Ukrainian pilots and around 80 cabin crew that are mainly located at Ryanair's bases in Poland as it waited for the market to eventually reopen.