Ukraine International Bewertung | Close to a desaster... ?

Ukraine International Flug von Dnepropetrovsk nach Kiev

Our – my and four colleagues – flight on 25.05.2012 with PS0072 from DNK to Kyiv started with a coffee at the small restaurant. For one coffee Americano (But it looked like a very poor cappuccino) and a black tea I was charged 9.50 Euro. A high price for the barn-like airport! At Nuremberg airport I paid 3,60 Euro for an excellent milk coffee.

The check-in procedure started with check of luggage. Cabin luggage and luggage to be checked in is x-rayed at the same time. If you would need a knife or other things you have a lot of time after the security check to place it in any piece of your cabin luggage. There was no need to present computers, cameras or fluids separately. The security staffs are lazy and unfriendly: “Mister, put out belt and your watch!” All the time you will be instructed to place the (dirty) baskets back on a small table. The slogan sounds Serve Yourself. The staff at the same is sticking on the chairs.

Later you will see the waiting room: a Soviet-style barn with some historic photographs illustrating the history of the airport and Soviet aviation.

The Boeing 737 with board number UR-GAN started to taxi and reached the runway. The runway was very similar to the erection side of a building covered by stones and other foreign objects. Heavy construction equipment could be seen in a few meters distance from the craft. After a crash with something the turbines shut down. The cabin remains dark and air conditioning didn’t work. After a while someone from the flight deck explained that due to technical reason take-off couldn’t continue. The voice was stressed confirming that something unplanned happened.

It took a while (15 min?) and an announcement was maid: Please remain seating. There was no information that the flight will not be continued. After a second while the passengers were requested to leave the aircraft. The front door remained closed. My guess is that this measure should to avoid that someone of the passengers can see the left turbine. From the bus we could see that the left empennage wing was damaged.

And now chaos started…

The next flight (The Aerosvit to Moscow) was terminated. Obviously the airport was temporarily closed. No one of the ground staff was able to give any reliable information. I took care about same passengers foreigners not able to speak Russian or Ukrainian. The ground staff offered (in Russian language) possibilities regarding flights on Sunday, Saturday and overnight stays at Dnepropetrovsk hotels. And I understood that I can rely only on my own.

Meanwhile beverages were brought: a litre of juice and some plastic cups of coffee. For Moscow passengers and business class only!

My colleague fought for his flight to Frankfurt. He bought tickets to see the Boss and the E-Street-Band. He changed to two other flights (to Frankfurt via Kiev, then a second one via Berlin). He was boarded but never flow. Finally the fourth attempt to fly via Vienna was successful.

I travelled to Kiev in a taxis, lost the whole day, paying about 3,000 Hrivnas. Now, more than a month after the disaster I haven’t seen any money returned to my card account. The agency were I booked the bloody Ukrainian Airline wrote me, that they are optimistic and asked to contact them once again in July.

One year ago I flow with Aerosvit from Kiev. The flight to Istanbul was 4 hours late; flight back was 3 hours delayed. During the whole waiting time no explanation was given at all.)

So, the lessons learned are: avoid flying with Ukrainian companies.