For almost a year now, Ukrainians have been demonstrating their unbreakability on the front lines and in everyday life, which has changed a lot but, despite all the threats and obstacles, continues to pulsate throughout our country. Throughout 2022, we at SkyUp continued our activities — to preserve the team for the sake of the future of Ukrainian civil aviation, to support our country, and to bring our victory closer.
How we adapted to new realities
We entered 2022 with a passenger transportation record: for the first time in the entire activity of the airline during one year, in 2021, more than 2.5 million passengers travelled with us. The plans were to continue gaining altitude, expand the flight map, and be inspired by new and interesting trips.
Due to the tight schedule of flights from the beginning of 2022, on 24 February, at the time of the closure of Ukrainian skies, 10 out of 11 aircraft in our fleet were abroad. Despite the temporary unavailability of flights from/to Ukraine, a significant change in competitive conditions and working conditions in new markets, we continue our activities and have not stopped them since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
We have successfully launched flights under wet leasing contracts, started charter flights for tour operators from Moldova and the Baltic countries, cooperate with and are open to cooperating with businesses, state and non-state specialized organizations, charitable foundations, etc.
During 2022, we have:
managed to work with 10 airlines, including Wizz Air, SmartWings, Freebird Airlines, Tailwind Airlines, Corendon Airlines, etc., under the terms of a wet-lease contracts;
started to implement charter programs for Join UP! Baltics from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to Egypt, as well as charter flights for Join UP! Ukraine from Poland to Egypt;
carried out special flights for Hasidic pilgrims from Tel Aviv — Chisinau — Tel Aviv, who came to Uman to celebrate Rosh Hashanah;
in the summer, we added a new airplane to the fleet, and now we can operate 11 planes.
In total, in 2022, we performed 7,713 flights*. We carried more than 1.08 million passengers* on these flights. Our planes flew to 204 airports* of the world on 627 routes*.
Flights
7 713
Passengers
1,08 mil.
Airports
204
Routes
627
SkyUp is safe to fly — confirmed
Flight safety is an absolute priority in aviation. In 2022, SAFA inspectors conducted 25 inspections of SkyUp Airlines flights at various airports. Today, the SAFA rating of SkyUp is 0.38, which indicates a high level of compliance with standards and ensures flight safety.
TCO authorisation
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
САА authorisation
- UAE
We have received authorization of the TCO of Great Britain and the TCO of Switzerland. These documents testify to the compliance with the safety and operational standards of our aircraft and give the right to fly to these countries. SkyUp also ensures compliance with the requirements of the national regulations of the CAA of the United Arab Emirates, which are necessary for the performance of non-scheduled passenger flights to this country.
We maintain part of our aircraft independently. In the summer, we opened a line station for the maintenance of our own fleet in Antalya. A total of 6 SkyUp aircraft were serviced at this station during the summer. A similar line maintenance station is currently operating in Tallinn, where 3 SkyUp aircraft are serviced.
The Sky-Stream maintenance organization was registered in March 2021. It was planned to develop this direction of the airline's work in Ukraine. The necessary certificate for the start of operations was received on 16 February 2022, and at the time of the russian invasion, a maintenance station at Boryspil Airport was equipped and prepared. However, the full-scale war forced us to look for opportunities to work abroad.
We help Ukraine and Ukrainians
As a Ukrainian company, we consider it our duty and remain open to active involvement in state and partner evacuation projects and specialized programs for the transportation of Ukrainian military and professional communities (athletes, doctors, etc.), provision of transportation for delegations to participate in specialized events, training, etc.
We cooperate with the state and international partners to evacuate our citizens to safe places abroad and transport humanitarian aid. Thus, since March, under the repatriation program, we have carried out 25 evacuation flights on the Chisinau — Tel Aviv route and sent 3,057 refugees to Israel. We also helped 475 Ukrainians get from Warsaw to Lisbon and transported 168 people from Chisinau to Frankfurt. In addition, in the first months of the war, 112 tons of humanitarian goods were delivered: medicines, baby food, personal hygiene products and household chemicals, blankets, diapers, etc.
Evacuation flights
Chisinau — Tel Aviv
25
Humanitarian goods
112 tons
People were transported by evacuation flights:
To Israel
3 057
To Portugal
475
To Germany
168
In December, in cooperation with the "Kharkiv with you" foundation, combat medics were transported from Chisinau to Stockholm, and with the Association of Ukrainian Refugees UAPT, they helped Ukrainians leave for Lisbon. On the way back from the Portuguese capital, humanitarian cargo for Ukraine was delivered: generators, medicines, and other necessities.
We also initiate and participate in charity projects. In the spring, together with SkyUp's long-term partner FC Shakhtar and with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, we initiated a series of Shakhtar Global Tour for Peace charity matches
As part of the project, we collected
UAH13,2million,
which was used to purchase:
- 750 protective helmets,
- 1 500 first-aid kits,
and other items necessary for Ukrainian defenders, citizens, and children affected by the war.
In November, we joined the presidential initiative UNITED24. As part of the initiative, we created a special branded livery with the inscription UNITED24 and a QR code to raise funds for medical aid. Anyone from any part of the world can join it by following the link.
In December, together with partners, SkyUp organized several events to support young Ukrainians at home and abroad. We congratulated the children on the New Year on a charter Rzeszów — Sharm El Sheikh flight ordered by Join UP!, and in Warsaw at the CHILDREN HUB centre for adaptation, development and psychological support of Ukrainian immigrant children in EU countries, created by the Future for Ukraine charitable foundation. Also, pilots and flight attendants of SkyUp, together with FC Shakhtar, visited the students of the Bucha Ukrainian Gymnasium.
We support our team
We consider it valuable achievement, that in the conditions of the war and the actual loss of the main market of activity, we managed to keep the team, which is more than 1,200 employees. We did not introduce layoffs, less than 10% of colleagues left us for their own reasons. Also, 53 employees joined the ranks of the Armed Forces. Today, most of our team remains in Ukraine.
In the peak summer season, we managed to engage about 80% of employees to work with varying degrees of workload. It is important that by preserving jobs, we not only to some extent maintain stability for our employees and continue to paying taxes to support Ukraine, but also preserve the professional aviation potential of Ukraine, which will revive domestic civil aviation after our victory.
Taxes to the budget
almost UAH100million
The stability of our business and team is based on a solid foundation of transformations launched during the acute phase of the coronavirus pandemic in 2021 and previous experience with remote work, adaptation of business processes to the online format, and development of flexibility. All these achievements were recognized with a prestigious international award at the HR Forum in Athens in the fall.
Our plans are about strengthening positions on international markets
Most of all, we dream of returning to our native Ukrainian sky. While this option is not available, the ability to operate in the European aviation space remains the main one, which ensures the preservation of the company and aviation specialists who will revive the domestic aviation industry after our victory.
Entering the European market was one of the tasks of our long-term development strategy, but the war forced us to accelerate the implementation of our plans. Therefore, in 2023, we will continue to expand our activities in new markets and strengthen our position.
Our plans include continuing to develop the direction of wet leasing, the execution of charter flights commissioned by tour operators, both Ukrainian and foreign. We are ready to cooperate with all Ukrainian, European, Israeli, and any other tour operators. With Ukrainian partners, we are ready to start flights from the countries closest to the borders of Ukraine. We do not cooperate with russia or countries and businesses that support russian aggression.
We also make efforts to deploy full-fledged activities on the European market.
Our team unconditionally believes in our victory, we continue to support Ukraine and Ukrainians. Let's take care of each other and care for each other, because our strength is in our unity and cohesion.
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*According to internal statistics of SkyUp Airlines