Italy-based Ernest Airlines carried out its first flight from Orio al Serio International Airport (Milan/Bergamo) to the Ukrainian Danylo Halytskyi International Airport in Lviv with 102 passengers on board on October 20, according to Lviv airport’s press service.
The plane made its return flight to Milan with 99 passengers on board, it said.
Ernest Airlines Business Developer Director Chady El Tannir said that Milan had been chosen because it was Italy’s financial capital and an Italian city with the biggest Ukrainian diaspora. In his words, 400 tickets were sold in Ukraine on the first day of ticket sales.
Flights from Lviv to Milan are scheduled twice a week: on Fridays and Sundays. Starting from November, they will be carried out three times a week, as Tuesdays will be added.
“We hope that after a while we will switch from two to three, four or even five flights a week,” Director General of Danylo Halytskyi International Airport Tetiana Romanovska said.
The fare for the first flight from Lviv to Bergamo was almost EUR 100. But the price for the next ones is EUR 49 and higher. It covers up to 10 kg hand baggage (55x35x25 cm).
Flights from Milan to Kyiv are scheduled to be launched on December 4. Moreover, flights from Lviv will be extended to Venice and Naples from December 8.
The company owns two Airbus A319 (141 seats) and Airbus A320 (180 seats) now. Ernest Airlines plans to get another six Airbus A320 planes by summer 2018. (UNIAN/Business World Magazine)