DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair (LON:RYA) expects to start flying in Ukraine within two weeks when fighting eventually ends and plans to become the country's largest airline, Group Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said on Wednesday.
O'Leary, whose airline is Europe's largest by passenger numbers, said he had hired around 60 Ukrainian pilots and around 80 cabin crew and his aim was to fly 30 routes from four Ukrainian airports back into the European Union within weeks of the conflict ending.
The airline would then plan to open up three or four large bases in the country within 6-12 months. He said he had no insight into when the conflict, triggered by Russia's invasion in February last year, might end.
"We would be back in there hopefully within two weeks after someone tells us it's safe to fly back into Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa. Kherson will be a lot longer because the airport has been destroyed," O'Leary told the Bloomberg New Economy Gateway conference near Dublin. "We will be Ukraine's biggest airline."