Infrastructure minister: State Aviation Company may be created as early as 2021

Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy does not rule out a possibility of starting the work of the state-run airline, announced earlier by the President of Ukraine, as early as next year.

Krykliy said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine that the Ministry of Infrastructure is already working on this project.

According to the minister, the state-owned airline may begin work as early as 2021.

"After all, everything rests on a) financing, b) the model, and c) expertise and the team. It's not just a beautiful idea. It should be working, generate profit for the state. Each investment made in it from the state budget should be returned a hundredfold. These are key things we are working on now," the minister said.

Krykliy also said that the concept of the state-run airline is based on the planes of the Antonov State Company.

"By and large, this is started primarily for the sake of An planes… We must support, give orders for military aircraft, and also give orders for civilian ships and find solutions. We must have a platform on which we could present how it works, so not to lose the status of an aircraft manufacturer," he said.

The minister estimates the basic investment in the launch of the state-run airline on domestic flights at billions of hryvnias.

"The only question is in what time and in what format they will be invested. I would like to find an interesting solution as cheap as possible," he said.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua