You do not need to queue at the airport check-in. You can do it by yourself, you can choose a convenient place and print a boarding pass through the established self-check-in racks that have recently appeared at Boryspil airport. About how the main airport of the country is changing, the introduction of the newest technologies, improvement of passenger service, we are talking today to the General Director of the Boryspil airport, Mr. Pavlo Riabikin.
“AT THE MOMENT, WE HAVE AMBITIOUS PLANS, IN PARTICULAR, OVER THE NEXT 4 YEARS, WE ARE PLANNING AN INVESTMENT PROGRAM ABOUT 10 BILLION HRYVNIAS WORTH”.
The New Year’s period is time when people talk about the passing year victories and prospects for the future. What can you define as your victory during almost one year term in the office?
It seems to me that deeds talk best. If our users-passengers can feel the changes, they may be my small victories. We are working hard to implement the latest technology and to improve the quality of our services. At the moment, we are fruitfully working over a strategic plan for the development of the company that we are going to present in the nearest future.
But confirm these ambitious plans we can only through the project implementation. In particular, we will complete the new bus departure gates; we will extend the luggage area and the area for transit passengers. These are the infrastructural changes that passengers will be able to see in the nearest future.
What is the maximum plan for you over 2018?
To continue the preliminary response, I can add that in 2018 we are planning to complete the infrastructure changes that have been started this year. Among those things that have not yet been named there is the parking. Next year, we are planning to put 1000 car spaces into operation, which comprises the half of the parking designed capacity.
Besides that in 2018, we have a major task — to consider and to approve the strategic plan for the development of the Boryspil airport because the further development of the company should take place in a planned way and should be connected with the growth of passengers traffic.
The state-owned enterprise you run has a dynamic development. The passengers traffic is growing; revenues in the state budget are increasing. How can this be done in a country at war?
First of all, we have a significant increase due to the transfer passengers provided by the basic carrier — the UIA airline. From our part, we are trying to adjust our infrastructure to the needs of airlines. The increase of the transfer passengers number this year has put us in demand of the reconstruction of this new terminal.
Talking about the structure of financial revenues, we regularly receive the first amount of payments from the basic carrier, the second one – from the Lufthansa group, and the third – from the duty free shops. All other companies pay less than duty free stores, in the structure of airport revenues.
In fact, these things are interconnected and require constant investment: we are increasing the transfer area and extending the waiting area in the departure section. There will be additional areas for placing duty free shops.
What are the advantages of Boryspil in comparison with the competitors in neighbouring countries? Why should passengers that travel from Asia to Europe choose Ukraine as a transfer country?
In fact, the competitive advantage for a passenger who is choosing to fly through a certain country is not associated with choice of the airport. This is a much more complicated question: the time of transfer, the airline services, the time of arrival to the intended country, etc. At the same time, we, together with the basic airline, are working over this joint product that should increase our competitiveness in comparison with other hub airports. For example, a large percentage of our transfer passengers are from China and they fly through Kyiv to Europe or America. Therefore, a special Chinese employee was hired to work with the Chinese passengers at the airport. Such a person was really very helpful. He performs the role of a conductor for them, since it is not possible to translate all the signs into Chinese, and a large number of the Chinese do not master English written language.
I have already noted that the number of transfer passengers served by the Boryspil airport is increasing, so we will be looking for new and new options to improve our services.
68% of all passenger traffic in the country passes through Boryspil Airlines. It means that most Ukrainians discover the world through you, and foreigners will know Ukraine first at the airport. What additional services do you plan to launch in order to make passengers more comfortable?
Recently we have installed the self-checkin racks. This is a world-wide experience that is now also available to our airport’s passengers. To register for a flight, you do not need to queue any more — you can do it by yourself, choose a convenient place and print a boarding pass. The next step is the automated luggage delivery racks and the introduction of the ability to print at home not only the boarding pass, but also a baggage badge with the subsequent handing it out in the automatic mode upon arrival at the airport.
In addition, we are preparing for the fact that biometric passports, which replaced the usual ones, dictate their terms of time and service. In particular, there are automatic devices for biometric passports that print a ticket at Ben-Gurion Airport, in Israel. If you have printed a ticket without problems, you are approaching the turnstile after the border guard, affix this ticket, and the code is updated, so you cross the border. If not, it is necessary to do all formalities with border guards personally. Of course, this is a question of the readiness of our border services more, but we also have to be ready to introduce the best experience, since we share the same client and this client is a passenger.
What was the reason of such growth of passengers traffic this year? Is there any other reason for visa-free regime with the EU?
We are a planned industry. Rather, the visa free regime affects the level of occupancy of the previously scheduled departure of an airplane. That is, if they have a weight load factor, let’s say 75%, then it can increase up to 80%. But for more accurate data it is necessary to take the statistics of airlines itself and to watch growth rates till the eleventh of June and afterwards.
In fact, the reason for the growth of passengers traffic is a well-chosen hub model that can show the results only through the mutually beneficial cooperation with the basic carrier of the Boryspil airport. In particular, this year we are planning to transport about 10 million passengers. Thus about 3 million of them are transit passengers and it takes 30% in the structure of our passenger traffic. So the growth occurs at the expense of people that use Boryspil not as a departure or arrival point, but as a point of transfer while changing routes. This is due to the fact that the basic carrier builds its marketing policy so that the map of flights is based on convenient for a passenger joints in Boryspil.
At the same time, if we are talking about an increase in the structure of direct passengers (passengers flying from Ukraine and to Ukraine), then it is very insignificant.
How can the Ukrainians more effectively use the visa-free regime conditions regarding air travel?
Of course, the visa-free regime has opened new opportunities for air passengers. The majority of the air companies provide various promotions, discounts, offer special conditions regularly. As a rule, the main precondition for the purchase of an airline ticket at a lower price is the advanced planning of a trip or flight on certain dates. Such flexibility became available to our citizens just after the visa-free regime implementation, our citizens can plan a trip for any period of time and visa does not matter a lot.
So my main advice for air travellers is to plan trips in advance, not to change dates and, if possible, to choose a fare only with hand luggage. Such fares are now offered by both — classical air carriers and so-called low cost companies. These factors will allow the passengers to purchase the most profitable airline ticket.
You are one of the top ten taxpayers in the country. Is there enough money to develop a business?
I will give you some figures: for the nine months of this year, the net profit of the airport has increased up to 1.63 billion UAH, and payments to the budget have increased up to 1.44 billion UAH. Let’s compare, in 2014 Boryspil finished with a loss of 44 million UAH, 2015 with a profit of 467 million UAH, and in 2016, it improved the indicators up to more than 1.2 billion UAH. Accordingly, the dynamics of deductions to the state budget, which you mentioned in your question, changed: in 2014 — 183 million UAH; 2015 — 265 million UAH; 2016 — 924 million UAH.
At the moment, we have ambitious plans I have talked about. In particular, over the next 4 years, we are planning an investment program that is about 10 billion UAH worth and, of course, reducing the amount of deductions, at least in terms of paying dividends, would be extremely appropriate.
What was your goal when you competed for the post of the General Director of Boryspil? Have you achieved all the goals you planned?
When I decided to take part in the competition, I clearly understood that I must save the things that had been achieved before. My goal is to improve the company’s activity, but in no way to break it. This is not the case when an enterprise is in a state of crisis, and it must be disassembled on a brick and re-assembled.
Everything that has been planned by us is gradually implemented. First of all thanks to our team’s coordinated work. That is why my answer is yes.
How have you changed over this year? Did not you think about returning to politics?
When I decided to take part in the competition for the position of the General Director of the airport, I wanted to distance myself from the politics that I had used to deal with before. I expected that this position is not associated with the politics. But as the case with a well-known Irish carrier showed, it is associated enough. Nevertheless, in my activity I am guided only by economic factors. And I want to place the emphasis on this. I do not plan to return to politics in the nearest future, and I want the amount of politics to be as small as possible in my work.
What will the Boryspil airport be like in 2020? How do you dream it would look in 10 years?
I am more pleased when we talk about an airport that will carry 20 million passengers or 50 million passengers. “Boryspil”, with such a passenger turnover, I want to see as a serviceoriented, high-tech enterprise. And these are the goals that we put into the strategic development plan of the airport.
