Kharkiv City Council made a plea to Ukraine’s government and Prime Minister Vladimir Groisman to interfere in communication with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and ask it not to expand the existing ban on flights over Eastern Ukraine.
The Council‘s statement asks Ukraine‘s government „not to allow to close the airspace over Kharkiv“. It is made following the claims, as the Council notes, that the State Aviation Service has received draft bulletin by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which restricts aviation movement in the Eastern part of Ukraine.
The appeal, made to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Vladimir Groisman on September 20, 2017 states that the draft bulletin, received by the State Aviation Service, introduces restrictions to the aviation movement in several airports (including international Kharkiv, Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye airports) within the Dnepropetrovsk region, as it is considered dangerous for flights.
But if the airspace will be closed, the outcome might include the closing down of Kharkiv airport and related businesses, which could constitute up to 1500 job loss, the deputies noted in the plea.
“If this document is adopted, the air communication between Kharkiv and other countries will be terminated, thus, Kharkiv will be in aviation isolation. Slobozhanshchin [the region in Ukraine] can become an unattractive region for foreign investors, and business travel of local business representatives will become much more complicated, which will have a serious negative impact on the economic condition of the Central and Eastern parts of Ukraine, ” the statement says.
The Prime Minister has promised to involve the related authority bodies, including Ministry of Infrastructure and the State Aviation Service, in considering the situation. According to the local media, in September 2017 Ukraine presented EASA with some evidence to prevent the isolation of these strategically important airports for Ukraine.
“The management of the Kharkiv International Airport has always supported flight safety measures at a strategic high level. At the same time, because of the concern of EASA, we have increased the level of minimalizing out possible threats. At the entrance group of the terminals, there are representatives of administrative security services, additional preliminary inspection equipment is installed. 3 additional guard posts are also provided,” explained the representative of the airport, as quoted by the Ukrainian informational agency UNIAN. Also, the airport claims that additional lighting systems were installed and 6 checkpoints with guard dogs were added to the structure of the administrative security service.
Source – AeroTime
