Ukraine International Airlines has dropped plans to launch flights from Kyiv to New York in December 2020 with a stopover in Iceland, Avianews reported.
For these flights, the airline planned to use medium-haul Boeing 737-900ER aircraft. Their range is not enough to carry out a non-stop flight, so the landing for refuelling was planned at Reykjavik airport. UIA planned to fly to New York twice a week.
Now, the restart of flights has been postponed to 2021. UIA stated that this is due to the negative impact of COVID-19 on the Ukrainian economy and the cancellation of flights to Tbilisi, Yerevan and Baku due to the deteriorating political situation in the Caucasus, which were supposed to ensure the transfer of passengers through Kyiv to the United States.
According to new information in the UIA booking system, Kyiv-New York flights have been scheduled from April 1, with a daily frequency of operations. A Boeing 777 is announced on the line.
However, according to the register of civil aircraft in Ukraine, UIA has only one such airliner – UR-GOA. The other two aircraft of this type, UR-GOB and UR-GOC, have been withdrawn from the fleet as part of optimization, UIA reported to avianews.com. These aircraft are now in storage at the Spanish airport Teruel.
The UR-GOA aircraft has been idle at Boryspil airport since the end of December 2019 and does not operate flights. Then the airline announced a change in the long-haul route schedule due to the need to replace the engine on this aircraft.
