Ukraine has opened a new terminal at Boryspil International Airport in Kiev that is capable of servicing up to 15 million visitors per year, ahead of next month’s Euro 2012 tournament.
The president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych said the completion of the venue was “another small victory” for Ukraine as the country continues to develop its infrastructure in preparation for the influx of visitors.
The total area of terminal D is 107,000 square metres, making it the largest airport terminal in Ukraine.
Terminal D’s construction cost US$600 million and took three-and-a-half years to complete. The terminal is equipped with 11 jet bridges enabling the servicing of up to six large (wide-body Boeing 747) and five medium (narrow-body Boeing 737) jets at any given time.
The new terminal has been designed to European standards, with moving walkways and a baggage handling capacity of 3,000 items per hour—higher than the average handling capacity at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, which is currently 2,733 bags per hour.
Boryspil also recently opened terminal F, designed to receive 2,400 passengers per hour. Currently, the airport handles 62 per cent of all passenger traffic in the country.
Ukraine has also built new airport terminals in all other Euro 2012 host cities—Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lviv—as well as a second airport in Kiev, Zhuliany. Donetsk airport was granted the ICAO III A category by the International Civil Aviation Organization, which allows it to accept landings in zero visibility conditions.
