Ukraine’s Dnipro, Zaporizhia and Kharikiv regions all have international airports. Zaporizhia Region additionally operates Berdyansk Commercial Sea Port, which links the country with CIS states, Iran, the Mediterranean nations, South Asia and the Americas. Following Ukraine’s loss of five port cities due to Russia’s occupation of Crimea, the Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson and Zaporizhia regional terminals have seen a significant increase in workload.
Railway services in Dnipro and Zaporizhia regions are provided by Pridniprovska Railways, which accounts for nearly 25% of the country’s passenger and freight rail transportation. Kharkiv, Sumy and Poltava regions are served by Pivdenna (Southern) Railways, which provides rail access to CIS countries and the Baltic states. Pivdenna Railways posted 14 million tonnes in turnover for the first six months of 2018.
Dnipro and Zaporizhia regions demonstrated the best transport growth results in the 10 months of 2018, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine reports. The two regions transported 0.6% and 13.3% more passengers year-on-year, respectively, whereas the freight traffic increased grew by 3.4% and 6.9%. Sumy and Poltava regions, for their part, reported a 4-5% drop in freight transportation. Kharkiv Region saw its rail freight transportation volumes sink 10%. The downward trend is believed to be due to a decline in exports to Russia, as well as to the regions’ proximity to the temporarily occupied areas.
On the other hand, the five regions may yet develop as major transport hubs.
Air travel plays a major part here. International Airport “Dnipropetrovsk” welcomed over 277,000 passengers in 2017, while Zaporizhia International Airport served 348,000 (27% up year-on-year). Kharkiv International Airport led the pack with more than 800,000 passengers served. Importantly, domestic passengers for all the three facilities accounted for between 13% and 15% of total throughput – to compare, domestic passengers at EU airports account for nearly 25% of throughput. In other words, the Ukrainian airports may yet see higher domestic passenger numbers.
Dnipro airport will launch a major refurbishment project in 2019, to be completed in 2021 or 2022, which will include the construction of a new terminal with an annual throughput capacity of up to 4 million passengers. A new $120 million’s worth runway will also be built. The project will be bankrolled by the government in conjunction with Development Construction Holding (DCH), which is to invest $60 million to $70 million in the terminal.
DHC previously renovated Kharkiv airport ahead of the Euro 2012 football cup by investing over $100 million in the terminal. The government contributed with $200 million towards a new runway.
Zaporizhia airport is currently undergoing a major overhaul. The project was announced by the Zaporizhia city mayor’s office in May 2018. There will be a new runway and a new two-tier terminal with a total area of 12,300 sq.m. Capable of processing 400 persons per hour, the terminal will be serving 250 international and 150 domestic flights. Passengers will appreciate 12 check-in counters, an automated baggage sorting system, duty-free shops, cafes, conference halls and VIP lounges. The terminal will cost some 500 million hryvnias, to be allocated from the city budget. The runway, worth 1.2 to 1.4 billion hryvnias, is to be paid for by the Ukrainian government.
Hlib Pryhunov, chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk regional council, announced in February 2018 that the Ukrainian government had decided on building an all-new airport on the border of Dnipro and Zaporizhia Regions. No timeline for the project has been revealed.
Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine in August 2018 adopted the plan to renovate two grain terminals at Berdyansk Commercial Sea Port for a total of $27.5 million (of which sum $2.4 million was invested in 2017), refurbish four out of the port’s nine piers and build two new ones. The port has already seen 90% of its railway tracks renovated and its power supply system partially upgraded.
Nearly 56 billion hryvnias will be allocated for road repairs in 2019, which is important because road haulage accounts for almost 12% of all freight transportation in Ukraine.
As per Ukraine’s State Agency of Automobile Roads (Ukravtodor), the N08 highway connecting Kyiv, Cherkasy, Poltava, Kirovohrad, Dnipro, Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions is to be repaired.
Dnipro Region prioritises the oncoming repair of the highways linking Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih and Mykolayiv and the one between Dnipro and Reshetylivka, while Zaporizhia Region will receive 600 million hryvnias ($21.7 million) for road repairs and a further 54 million hryvnias for the construction of a bridge across the Dnieper in Zaporizhia. A total of 1 billion hryvnias will be allocated for road renovation projects in Kharkiv Region, 925 million in Sumy Region and nearly 560 million in Poltava Region.
Author: Pavlo Kharlamov
Photo: shutterstock
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