SkyUp Airlines of Ukraine enjoyed a successful operation in the European ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance, insurance) charter market during the summer of 2023, according to the airline.
This is despite the airline having been uprooted from its home base of Kyiv Boryspil Airport (KBP) at the start of the Russian Invasion in February 2022.
During the summer aviation season (from April 1 to November 1, 2023), SkyUp performed 6,904 flights and transported 1,047,555 passengers. The carrier’s flight program covered 43 countries and 440 routes.
Such results make SkyUp Airlines among the 20 largest ACMI service providers in the European airspace during the 2023 northern summer season.
“The airline shows positive dynamics and increases the number of flights under ACMI contracts,” said Dmytro Seroukhov, CEO of SkyUp Airlines. “We are grateful to our partners for their cooperation and continue to develop this business direction. At the same time, our strategic plans are not limited to Europe only: SkyUp Airlines received FAR129 and FAOC foreign air carrier certificates in the USA and Canada, respectively. This allows the Ukrainian airline to scale up its activities in North America to provide ACMI services and perform charter flights.”
The achievements of the summer season of 2023 surpass the airline’s results of the same period of the previous year. At that time, SkyUp Airlines flew to 34 countries, performed 5,412 flights, and transported 827,482 passengers.
The list of top five countries with the highest number of flights changed between 2022 and 2023, according to the airline.
In 2022, Turkey was the leader with 1,740 flights, followed by Germany with 798 flights, Slovakia with 660 flights, Greece with 425 flights, and Moldova with 281 flights.
However, this year, Moldova has taken the lead. The five most popular countries by the number of flights were Moldova (1,420), Turkey (1,141), Tunisia (656), Egypt (538), and Germany (454).
During the 2023 summer season, SkyUp Airlines operated flights on behalf of Tunisair, FlyOne, HiSky Europe, Wizz Air Malta, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, Corendon Dutch Airlines, Tailwind Airlines, and FlyEgypt.
According to data from ch-aviation, SkyUp has a current fleet of two Boeing 737-700s and seven Boeing 737-800s.
Presidential praise
If announcing a strong summer 2023 performance wasn’t enough, SkyUp recently received direct praise from Ukraine’s President Zelensky.
On November 11, SkyUp Airlines performed a special flight (PQ3118) to rescue Ukrainian, Moldovan, and Israeli refugees who had fled from the Gaza Strip. On this flight, the airline carried 155 people from Cairo to Chisinau. Onward bus transfers to other final destinations were offered to those who needed them.
“Since the beginning of our activity, we have faced multiple challenges,” said Seroukhov. “As a responsible business, we stand alongside our state to help citizens who find themselves in difficult circumstances. In 2020, we evacuated Ukrainians from Wuhan; in 2022, we helped people flee from war. And now we are again joining efforts with the state to save the citizens of our country and bring them to safe places of stay.”
In a televised presidential address to the people of Ukraine following the operation to evacuate the refugees, President Zelensky personally praised the dedication and hard work of all those at SkyUp Airlines for performing the flight and for saving the lives of all those onboard the special flight.