Boryspil International Airport initiated an event aiming to strengthen control and modernization of checkpoints

On 6 February 2024, Boryspil International Airport hosted the working meeting with representatives of the UN Offices in Ukraine (United Nations Office for Project Services – UNOPS and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime – UNODC) and the Separate Check Point “Kyiv” of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGSU). The main purpose of the visit was the assessment of control the Boryspil International Airport’s capacity in the context of the flight recovery after the opening of Ukrainian airspace.

The visit was made within the framework of cooperation with the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine on the assessment of priority checkpoints in Ukraine for air, road, sea and railway communication. The cooperation was launched in July 2023, when the UNODC delegation got acquainted with the current state of Boryspil Airport and highly appreciated the level of preparedness and ongoing support of infrastructure and capacity of the company’s employees. UNODC has supported the establishment of a Port Control Unit (PCU) at the Boryspil Airport through its global programme on Passenger and Cargo Border Team (PCBT).

During the working meeting, a discussion was held on the urgent needs of Boryspil Airport and Separate Check Point “Kyiv” (SBGSU) to resume operational activities with an enhanced level of security. Representatives of Boryspil Airport together with Oleksii Dubrevskyi , CEO, presented the current state of the airport security system and infrastructure, informed about the analysis of risks and threats and ways to prevent them.

Representatives of the Separate Check Point “Kyiv” of the SBGSU reported on the high degree of readiness to resume the work of crossing point at Boryspil Airport and the basic needs for their upgrading. The main areas of focus include enhancing passenger security and flight safety, including: increasing the ability to detect objects hidden from customs control, countering illegal migration, countering illicit flows, anti-terrorism measures, etc.

“We are now at the point where the achievements of the entire Ukrainian aviation industry may be lost due to the lack of conventional aviation activities. Our team is working not only on the restoration of Boryspil airport, we are talking about the entire Ukrainian aviation industry. Therefore our efforts are aimed to non-losing the opportunity to get back to the radars of international airtraffic. The priority of the work is to strengthen the security architecture in compliance with all aviation security and passenger security standards, “said Oleksii Dubrevskyi, Director General of Boryspil Airport.

The delegation familiarized itself with the state of the airport infrastructure, in particular, Terminal D, and also visited certain areas that need to be restored and updated. Representatives of the UNOPS and UNODC highly appreciated the results of the work of the company’s employees to preserve and maintain the airport infrastructure and expressed their support to the Boryspil airport authorities  for the resumption of flights at the airport.

“Boryspil International Airport is a key element of the Ukrainian aviation industry, during the visit we were impressed with its good condition and the ability to quickly resume operations as soon as the security situation allows. Now it is important to analyze possible areas of partnership between the airport, the border service of Ukraine and UNOPS and UNODC for the future restoration of the Ukrainian aviation industry, “commented Arun Narayanan, UNOPS Infrastructure Advisor.

In the future, it is planned to deepen and continue cooperation to strengthen control of priority checkpoints. As Boryspil Airport is one of the key checkpoints, cooperation on its restoration is an important factor for the rapid launch of air traffic after the opening of Ukraine`s airspace.