Ukraine Plans to Resume Flights From Kyiv and Lviv Airports by January 2025

Flights may resume at one of Ukraine's airports, either Lviv or Boryspil, by the end of January 2025.

Crispin Ellison, a Senior Partner at the insurance company Marsh McLennan, shared this at the Kyiv International Economic Forum, according to Interfax-Ukraine.

"I believe that if we're fortunate, by January, we’ll have five or six airlines ready to operate flights from Ukraine," Ellison said.

He noted that securing insurance mechanisms for aviation would be simpler if flights started from Lviv Airport. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pushing for Boryspil International Airport to be the first to reopen.

Ellison added that passenger planes like the Airbus-320 and Boeing-737, as well as smaller airliners, would require insurance coverage of at least $750 million.

The final decision on resuming flights will be made by the President’s Office, based on air defense capabilities and the overall security situation.

Ukraine’s civil aviation was completely grounded on February 24, 2022, since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

In April 2023, the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) forecasted that flight restrictions in the airspace over Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and Moldova would remain until at least 2029.

In October 2023, Boryspil International Airport announced it could be ready to receive aircraft within a month after the war ends.