Seats for flights in the next few weeks cannot be booked with these airlines, but entire aircraft - including pilots and cabin crew - can be booked.

For Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) and its national competitor Sky Up, Russia's attack on Ukraine initially brought it to a standstill - no business, no income, the home bases could no longer be served.

Timo Kotowski

Editor in Business.

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However, since the airlines were able to bring most of their aircraft to safety abroad before the attacks began, they are now trying to survive economically with a changed business model.

As a result, three Sky Up aircraft have become daily visitors to German airports to take package travelers on board for the journey to the Mediterranean.

The background: The holiday airline Corendon has rented the three Boeing 737 planes in order to be able to expand its flight schedule quickly.

The jets touched down in Düsseldorf, Hanover, Nuremberg, Paderborn and other places in the past few days, after which they went to Rhodes or Crete.

Secure continued existence outside the homeland

Meanwhile, since May 1st, UIA has had a partner in Latvian Air Baltic.

Lisbon and Cyprus were last on the list of destinations – headed for from Riga.

Sky Up has accommodated another plane with Moldova's national airline.

Meanwhile, UIA is particularly proud to have brought the Ukrainian national soccer team to the friendly match at Borussia Dortmund.

The start was not in the Ukraine, but in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Holiday flights while fighting is going on at home - for UIA and Sky Up this is not a far-fetched idea, but a welcome task.

From the first week of the war it was the declared goal of both companies to fly again as quickly as possible.

"We are very happy that our European partners are helping the Ukrainian state and economy," said UIA boss Evheniy Dykhne in the meantime.

Aircraft will not be leased for flights to Russia.

Sky Up - owned by Ukrainian entrepreneurs Yurii and Oleksandr Alba - had written to other airlines directly in an open letter: "By using our planes, you help us to continue our operations during the war, pay taxes and secure 1300 jobs .” A tenth of the income will be donated to war victims.

Ukrainian airlines hope for summer

Wet lease is the name of the business model in industry jargon, it refers to the leasing of an aircraft including staff - in contrast to dry lease, in which the empty aircraft is rented out in exchange for installment payments.

For now it's a small business in need.

Sky Up had actually planned to grow from 15 to 18 jets in 2022 in order to get closer to UIA with 25 aircraft.

Sales should increase to around 800 million euros, including the affiliated travel provider Join Up.

Russia's attack thwarted the plan.

After all, all 15 aircraft were parked abroad when the war began;

at airports from Tallinn in Estonia to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.

UIA assembled eleven aircraft at the Spanish regional airport of Castellón.

The space, which opened in 2012 and proved to be a bad investment due to the lack of passenger traffic, already functioned as an aircraft parking lot during the Corona pandemic.

For the summer travel wave, the Ukrainian airlines are hoping for more users for their planes.

Sky-Up owner Oleksandr Alba has stated that half of the fleet will be used again as a goal.