A delegation of Austrian experts are in Dnipro this week to begin work assessing the city’s airport infrastructure and developing a reconstruction plan.
Officials from Austria company Airport Consulting Vienna arrived in Dnipro at the invitation of Oleksandr Yaroslavsky’s DCH Group, which is poised to take on the Dnipro International Airport redevelopment project. They are accompanied by the general director of Yaroslavsky’s Kharkiv International Airport, Volodymyr Vasilchenko.
This fact-finding visit will focus on a number of issues including the airfield, logistics and potential air traffic volumes, with the objective of drawing up a detailed business plan.
The arrival of the Austrian delegation comes following discussions between Dnipro Mayor Boris Filatov and Yaroslavsky. “DCH Group president Oleksandr Yaroslavsky has repeatedly stated his readiness to invest in the construction of a new airport terminal complex, but only under the right conditions of state financing for airport runway infrastructure. At this stage, we decided to invite Austrian colleagues to help assess the best approaches to the project, with UAH three million allocated by DCH Group to finance this research,” commented Vasilchenko.
A presentation of the findings from this research visit is set to take place in around eight weeks. “Our task is to collect all the initial data that will help us provide answers to the key questions regarding the format and location of the new airport,” commented Yuriy Rubanov of Airport Consulting Vienna.
Airport Consulting Vienna has a record of consultation work on airport projects around the globe and worked with DCH Group on the redevelopment of Kharkiv International Airport as part of the city’s preparations to serve as a host city during Euro 2012. “They are well aware of the nuances of the Ukrainian market and can offer the right combination of knowledge and practical experience for this project,” said Vasilchenko.
Yaroslavsky invested USD 107 million into the reconstruction of Kharkiv International Airport complex. The airport has since attracted a number of international carriers including Turkish Airlines, Wizz Air, LOT, Pegasus, SkyUp and many more. In 2018, Kharkiv International Airport set a new annual record for number of passengers with 962,000 people flying from the eastern Ukrainian air hub.
The experience of redeveloping Kharkiv’s airport will serve as the basis for the planned upgrade of Dnipro International Airport. Yaroslavsky has previously said he is ready to invest USD 60-70 million into the project and expects construction works to last two to three years.
Since its foundation in 1992, Airport Consulting Vienna has participated in more than 350 consulting projects and more than 80 other major construction projects around the world. The company is also involved in the Ukrainian state program for the development of the country’s airports until 2020.