The story
Early history
Ukraine International Airlines was established as an alternative to Ukraine Airlines, a remnant of the Soviet Era in which each country had an operating airline under financial and commercial control of Aeroflot's main office in Moscow until the Soviet Union broke up and the airliners on the ground at each airport became the property of the state in which they were grounded. In early 1992, the then Minister for Aviation in Ukraine reached an agreement on the lease of 2 Boeing 737-400s from Guinness Peat Aviation (GPA), an Irish aircraft-leasing company, and the establishment of a new airline to operate at "internationally acceptable standards of Safety, Reliability, and Service between Ukraine and Europe."
In September 1992, GPA and the new airline appointed Dublin-based International Aviation consultancy Avia International to lead the establishment and launch of the airline. Working closely with selected ex-staff of Ukraine Airlines, the joint team succeeded in launching flights to multiple destinations on schedule, beginning with a Kyiv-London flight on 25 November 1992. Other routes inaugurated in this period connected Kyiv with Berlin, Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna, and Amsterdam.
It became one of the first "joint ventures with foreign capital" in Ukraine and the first airline in the former Soviet Union to use then-new Boeing 737-400. The founding shareholders were the Ukrainian Association of Civil Aviation and GPA.
The airline began cargo operations with a Boeing 737-200 on 13 November 1994 to London and Amsterdam.
In 1996, Austrian Airlines and Swissair became shareholders, investing US$9 million in new equity.
In 2000, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development became a shareholder by investing US$5.4 million. In 2006, UIA adopted a new classification system for freight operations which allowed the airline to carry a wider range of goods, ranging from live animals to fresh food and valuable objects. Additionally, an express service was introduced to meet the needs of customers wishing to use expedited cargo-delivery services.
Developments since 2013
In the first half of 2013, the airline's patronage rose by 60% to 2,200,000 passengers. According to the company's president, Yuri Miroshnikov, UIA planned to achieve the same 2013 yearly results (i.e. to reach annual patronage of 4,400,000). Also in 2013, due to the demise of competitor Aerosvit, UIA launched new flights from Ukraine to Baku, Azerbaijan; Yerevan, Armenia; Larnaca, Cyprus; Munich, Germany; Warsaw, Poland; Vilnius, Lithuania; Prague, Czech Republic; Athens, Greece; Batumi, Georgia; Moscow (Sheremetyevo Airport), Yekaterinburg, Saint Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Nizhnevartovsk, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, and Sochi in Russia; and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. On 25 April 2014, UIA began non-stop flights from Kyiv to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States.
In October 2015, the Russian government banned UIA from flying to Russian destinations as a response to a ban by the Ukrainian government on Russian airlines flying into Ukraine. Russia had annexed Crimea in 2014.
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Since June 2016, most of UIA's international flights are sold with the basic "hand luggage-only tariff." If passengers booking this tariff want to check-in luggage, the airline charges fees up to US$60 per flight. Also, since the northern-hemisphere summer of 2016, UIA wet-leased an Embraer ERJ-145 from Dniproavia (also part of the Privat Group) for daily services to Chernivtsi (because the condition of the airport there doesn't allow E190 and 737 operations).
On 14 June 2016, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine had the offices of UIA searched because of an investigation by the Bureau into passenger fees not paid to the State Aviation Fund.
In March 2018, Ukraine International announced a fleet modernization plan. While the first of three pre-owned Boeing 777-200ER aircraft had already been delivered, the airline expected several new Boeing 737 and Embraer E195 aircraft during the year to replace its last Boeing 737 Classics.
Ukraine International ceased its membership of the Flying Blue rewards program on 1 January 2019. UIA expected losses of approximately US$50 million for 2019 and implemented cost-saving measures, according to the new CEO.
In September 2021, UIA announced plans to add two Boeing 777-300s to their fleet, primarily for charter operations.
Suspension of operations
The operations of the airline were severely limited following the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war in February 2022. As a result of the conflict, Ukrainian airspace was closed to civil aircraft. The airline suspended flights from 24 February of that year, hoping to restart them by 23 March, before extending the suspension until the end of May 2022. Castellón–Costa Azahar Airport in Spain became a storage facility for their fleet of six Boeing 737 aircraft.
Further suspension extensions were periodically announced, with the current extension announced on 10 April 2023. As of July 20, 2023, the suspension notice states that flights to and from Ukraine will be suspended "until martial law in Ukraine is lifted, and Ukrainian airspace is reopened".
The operation of several aircraft that had been located outside Ukrainian airspace continued, with flights taking place to destinations within Europe. However, operations would be halted completely in October 2022 as a result of conflict between the shareholders of the airline, namely Aron Mayberg and Ihor Kolomoiskyi.
Bankruptcy
In December 2022, Hanna Borysonnik, a close associate of Ihor Kolomoyskyi, was elected as the president of UIA. Under a shareholder agreement, Aron Mayberg historically chose the airline's president while Kolomoisky's group chose the CFO, meaning Borysonnik's rise marked a transfer of top executive control. In early 2023, Mayberg, as well as Oleksandra Nikitina were removed from the companies board. Following this, several of the airlines former aircraft were transferred to Windrose Airlines.
In 2023, the assets of the company were sold in an auction where Okealos Company LLC acquired the trademarks of the airline. On 31 October 2023, Ukreximbank filed a lawsuit to the Commercial Court of the City of Kyiv, with the companies financial obligations amounting to more than 20 billion hryvnia. On 22 November 2023, the Commercial Court of Kyiv City placed the company into bankruptcy administration due to debt owed to Ukreximbank.
In late 2024, the Security Service of Ukraine seized a number of aircraft formerly operated by UIA on the grounds of links to tax evasion. The decision was connected with the earlier arrest of Ihor Kolomoyskyi in 2023 and the transfer of several of the airlines aircraft to Windrose Airlines via the oligarchs Cyprus-based leasing entity
In February 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy imposed sanctions on a number of prominent oligarchs, including Ihor Kolomoyskyi, formerly a close associate of the president. In July 2025, several former executives of the airline, including Yevhenii Dykhne were suspected of tax evasion exceeding 344 million UAH. Dykhne had been separately sentenced in 2023 to 5 years in prison in an abuse-of-office case involving Boryspil International Airport. An Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a ruling that the airline was legally responsible to pay full compensation to the families of the passengers of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, after it was mistakenly shot down by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2020.
In 2026 a number of claims from Boryspil International Airport were upheld by the Commercial Court of Kyiv against UIA as a result of a sizable number of unpaid fees. Additionally, it was discovered that several aircraft that had been stored at the airport as mortgaged collateral were missing key components, including the disappearance of several CFM International CFM56 engines. Similar incidents had occurred with two Boeing 737 aircraft of Trans Air Congo that had been parked at Hostomel Airport, with the engines being sold under falsified documents to the airline Libyan Express, and installed on former UIA aircraft operated by the North African carrier.
The reconstitution of Ukraine International Airlines through state intervention remains unlikely. In 2021, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky had proposed the creation of a new national carrier named Ukraine National Airlines. While initially envisaged to begin operations in 2022, the project remains indefinitely on hold due to the closure of Ukrainian airspace. Subsequently, the private low-cost SkyUp Airlines remains the de-facto flag carrier of Ukraine.
From Wikipedia’s article on Ukraine International Airlines, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4