Lviv Danylo Halytskyi International Airport

Lviv Danylo Halytskyi International Airport Міжнародний аеропорт «Львів» імені Данила Галицького
IATA: LWO ICAO: UKLL
Summary
Airport type	Public/military
Owner	Government of Ukraine
Operator	State Enterprise “Lviv Danylo Halytskyi International Airport”
Serves	Lviv
Location	Lviv, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine
Hub for	Wizz Air SkyUp
Focus city for	Ukraine International Airlines Wizz Air LOT Polish Airlines Ryanair SkyUp
Elevation AMSL	1,071 ft / 326 m
Coordinates	49°48′45″N 23°57′22″E
Website	lwo.aero
Map
LWO Location of airport in Ukraine
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 13/31 10 843 3,305 Concrete
Statistics (2021)
Passengers 1,834,051 Cargo (t) 2,282 Aircraft movements 17,444

Lviv Danylo Halytskyi International Airport (Ukrainian: Міжнародний аеропорт «Львів» імені Данила Галицького, romanized: Mizhnarodnyi aeroport "Lviv" imeni Danyla Halytskoho) (IATA: LWO, ICAO: UKLL) is an international airport in Lviv, Ukraine, located 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from the central city. It is the second largest and busiest airport in Ukraine.^{[citation needed]} Importance of the airport increased gradually following the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014. The airport is named after King Daniel of Galicia, the historical founder of the city in 1256 AD.

On 24 February 2022, Ukraine closed airspace to civilian flights due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[1]

History

Early history

The old terminal

Since 1923,^[2] the Polish authorities decided to establish a permanent air base in Skniłów near Lviv with all hangar and logistic facilities for the expanded military aviation, which could no longer fit at the Lewandówka airfield. Skniłów was the name of the neighbouring village which today is part of Lviv. The 6th Aviation Regiment was stationed here from 1925 until World War II.^{[citation needed]}

It was not until 1929,^[2] when the Lwów-Skniłów airport was fully functional to meet the needs of the rapidly developing city. It was named after the Polish President Ignacy Mościcki.^[2] Beside civilian flights, the airport shared its functions along with military planes as well as the local aeroclub.^[2] Before the Second World War, it operated a domestic route to Warsaw and Kraków. In 1930, the international route to Bucharest was launched which was extended in 1931 to Sofia and Thessaloniki. In 1936, the above route was extended to Athens and Lydda.

After the war, the Polish-Soviet border was moved west and Lviv became part of the Ukrainian SSR.

The base was home to the:

• 6th Aviation Regiment of the Polish Military Aviation (1929-1939)
• 243rd Independent Mixed Aviation Regiment of the Soviet Air Forces. (1960-1992)^[3]

Developments since 2010

In 2010, the airport carried 481,900 passengers.^[4] In preparation for Euro 2012, Lviv International Airport has undergone a $200m expansion project. Lviv airport's new terminal building has an area of 34,000m² with a capacity of handling 1,000 passengers an hour.^{[5][unreliable source?]} Of the $200m, it was expected that the Ukrainian government would provide $70m, including $14m in 2008, and $130m would come from private investors.^[6] The expansion project included a 700-meter extension of the existing runway and a new airport terminal capable of handling up to 2,000 passengers per hour (5.69 million passenger annually).^[5][7]

The airport used to be a focus city for Wizz Air Ukraine, which served four international routes to Italy (Naples, Bergamo, and Treviso) and Germany (Dortmund) until the airline was dissolved April 2015 (by contrast, routes from Kyiv International Airport continued after being taken over by the parent company).^[8] In January 2017, Wizz Air announced that it would be resuming flights to Lviv, initially with the introduction of a route to Wroclaw.^[9]

In March 2017, Ryanair announced that it would be launching seven routes to Lviv starting October 2017.^[10] These plans were scrapped in July after Ryanair's failure to reach an agreement with Boryspil and its subsequent decision to postpone entry into the Ukrainian market.^[11] Immediately the Ukrainian government put pressure on Boryspil and accused Ukraine International Airlines in sabotaging the agreement. This resulted in the continuation of talks with Ryanair and as of March 2018, it was announced that Ryanair would go on to open 10 new routes from Boryspil and 5 new routes from Lviv.

Facilities

Terminal A

The airport has two terminals (1 and A), though only terminal A is currently in operation. Terminal A was opened in 2012. There are 29 check-in desks, of which nine are for domestic flights and the remaining twenty for international flights.^[5] It has nine gates, four of them equipped with jetbridges, and can handle up to 3,000 passengers per hour. Facilities at the airport also include four cafés and two duty-free shops, as well as two airport lounges, one in the domestic section and one in the international.

Terminal 1

Opened in 1955, this was the airport's sole terminal until 2012, when terminal A was opened. It can handle 300 departing and 220 arriving passengers per hour.^[12] There had been tentative plans to use it for VIP passengers in the future.^[13] However, in June 2019, the terminal was re-opened for domestic flights, with future plans to move charter flights to the terminal as well.^[14]

Airlines and destinations

Regular and charter flights to Lviv before February 24, 2022.

Airlines	Destinations
airBaltic	Seasonal: Riga[15]
Austrian Airlines	Vienna
Azerbaijan Airlines	Baku
Azur Air Ukraine	Charter: Sharm El Sheikh,[16]Hurghada Seasonal charter: Antalya,[16] Bodrum, Dalaman,[16] La Romana,[16] Marsa Alam[16]
flynas[17]	Riyadh Seasonal: Gassim, Jeddah[18]
LOT Polish Airlines	Warsaw–Chopin, Zielona Gora
Lufthansa	Frankfurt
Motor Sich Airlines	Kyiv–Zhuliany
Pegasus Airlines	Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen Seasonal: Bodrum, Dalaman
Ryanair	Barcelona,[19] Bari, Bergamo, Bologna, Bratislava, Budapest, Charleroi,[19] Gdańsk,[19] Kaunas, Kraków, London–Stansted, Manchester,[20] Memmingen, Naples, Nuremberg,[21] Palermo,[22] Pisa, Poznań, Riga,[23] Rome–Fiumicino, Stockholm–Arlanda,[19] Treviso,[22] Turin,[22] Warsaw–Modlin, Wrocław, Zagreb[19] Seasonal: Paphos,[24] Weeze
SkyUp[25]	Istanbul, Lisbon,[25] Madrid,[26] Prague,[25] Tel Aviv, Valencia,[26] Vienna[26] Seasonal: Alicante,[25] Bahrain,[27] Baku, Barcelona,[25] Batumi, Burgas,[25] Dammam, Kuwait City,[27] Muscat, Rhodes,[25] Riyadh,[27] Tirana, Tivat Seasonal charter: Antalya,[28] Hurghada,[28] Marsa Alam,[28] Qassim,[28] Sharm El Sheikh[28]
Turkish Airlines	Istanbul
Ukraine International Airlines	Kyiv–Boryspil, Tel Aviv Charter: Sharm El Sheikh[29] Seasonal charter: Antalya,[29] Bodrum,[29] Hurghada,[29] Tivat,[29] Rhodes[29]
Windrose Airlines	Kyiv–Boryspil Seasonal charter: Antalya, Hurghada
Wizz Air[30]	Beauvais,[31] Berlin, Billund, Bratislava, Budapest, Catania, Charleroi,[31] Dortmund, Eindhoven,[31] Gdańsk, Hamburg, Katowice, Larnaca, Lisbon, London–Luton, Madrid,[31] Memmingen, Milan–Malpensa, Naples, Nice,[31] Pardubice, Poznań, Rome–Ciampino, Rome–Fiumicino, Tallinn, Treviso,[31] Valencia, Vilnius, Warsaw–Chopin, Wrocław

Statistics

Annual passenger traffic at LWO airport. See Wikidata query.

Year	Passengers[4][32][33]	Change
2003	144,100	035.8%
2004	198,200	035.5%
2005	235,900	019.0%
2006	278,200	018.0%
2007	427,100	052.4%
2008	532,100	025.5%
2009	452,300	015.0%
2010	481,900	06.5%
2011	297,000	038.4%
2012	576,000	094.0%
2013	700,800	021.0%
2014	585,200	016.5%
2015	570,570	02.5%
2016	738,000	029.4%
2017	1,080,000	046.3%
2018	1,598,700	048.0%
2019	2,217,400	038.8%
2020	878,500[34]	060.0%
2021	1,834,051^[citation needed]	0108.8%

Ground transportation

Terminal interior

A dedicated express link bus to Lviv railway station runs every 90 minutes.^[35] The airport is also served by Lviv's public transport, specifically the bus route 48 and the trolleybus route 29, both of which terminate in the city centre. Taxis are also available at the airport, as well as car rental services.

Accidents and incidents

• The airfield was the site of the Sknyliv air show disaster in 2002, which killed 77.^[36]
• On 4 October 2019, Ukraine Air Alliance Flight 4050, an Antonov An-12 crash-landed in a field close to the village of Sokilnyky 1.5 km (0.9 miles) short of the runway of Lviv airport, killing at least five people. The Ukraine Air Alliance (Ukraine-Aeroalliance) plane ran out of fuel before a planned stopover at Lviv, en route from Vigo in Spain to Istanbul.^[37][38]
• On 18 March 2022, during the Russo-Ukrainian War, an aircraft-repair plant near the airport was hit by several Russian missiles.

See also

• Sknyliv air show disaster
• List of airports in Ukraine
• List of the busiest airports in Ukraine
• List of the busiest airports in Europe
• List of the busiest airports in the former USSR

References

1. "Ukraine closes airspace to civilian flights amid Russian military action". Reuters. 24 February 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
2. Історія аеропорту “Львів” там, де його усі звикли бачити. photo-lviv.in.ua. 7 May 2020
3. "243rd Independent Mixed Aviation Regiment". Soviet Armed Forces 1945-1991. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 17 November 2008.
5. "Lviv International Airport". Airport Technology. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
6. Modernization of Lviv airport for Euro-2012 finals to cost $200 million. Government can cough up $70 million, ZIK (27 May 2008)
7. [1]^{[dead link‍]}
8. "Wizz Air Further Restructures Ukrainian Operations". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
9. "Wizz Air launches flights from Lviv to Wroclaw from April 2017". Interfax-Ukraine. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
10. "Ryanair Launches Low Fares In Ukraine (Country No.34)". Ryanair.com. 15 March 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
11. "Ryanair Cancels Planned Ukraine Services As Kiev Airport Fails To Honour Commitments". Ryanair. 10 July 2017. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
12. "Термінал № 1 міжнародного аеропорту "Львів" імені Данила Галицького - Wikimapia". wikimapia.org. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
13. "Аеропорт Львова очолила екс-співробітник із "глобальним досвідом"". ТСН.ua. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
14. "Старий термінал львівського аеропорту відновлює роботу. Фото". tvoemisto.tv. 21 June 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
15. "70+ destinations | Where we fly | airBaltic". www.airbaltic.com.
16. "Flights". anextour.com.ua.
17. "flynas". flynas.com/en.
18. "Лоукостер из Саудовской Аравии запустит еще 2 маршрута во Львов". 23 June 2021.
19. "Лоукостер Ryanair в летнем расписании запустит 13 новых маршрутов из Украины". 19 January 2022.
20. "Ryanair's Eddie Wilson: " You've got to give people confidence"".
21. "Ryanair Delivers Tourism Recovery at Nuremberg Airport | Ryanair's Corporate Website". 8 December 2021.
22. "RYANAIR LAUNCHES NEW UKRAINE TO ITALY ROUTES FOR WINTER 2020 & SUMMER 2021". corporate.ryanair.com. 7 July 2020.
23. "Investēs miljonus: "Ryanair" nāk klajā ar paziņojumu par vērienīgiem plāniem Rīgā". LA.LV.
24. "Ryanair літатиме зі Львова на Кіпр з 2 липня! Квитки від €28! :: Lowcost UA". 29 April 2021.
25. "Route map". skyup.aero. 8 December 2021.
26. "New European discoveries: SkyUp opens sales for the next season from Kharkiv, Lviv, and Zaporizhzhia". skyup.aero. 17 December 2021.
27. "AS MORE MIDDLE EASTERNERS VISIT UKRAINE, SKYUP LAUNCHES FLIGHTS BETWEEN LVIV AND SAUDI ARABIA, KUWAIT". tvoemisto.tv. 3 January 2022.
28. "freight monitor". online.joinup.ua.
29. "Charter flights timetable". flyuia.com.
30. "WIZZ – Dream more. Live more. Be more".
31. ""Открытое небо" в действии: Wizz Air готов объявить о расширении деятельности в Украине". 12 October 2021.
32. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 31 October 2008. Retrieved 17 November 2008.
33. http://www.mfa.gov.ua/data/upload/publication/china/ua/18449/lviv_airport_upgrade_eng.pdf^{[permanent dead link‍]}
34. "Аэропорт «Львов» закончил год без убытков | Mintrans.news". Mintrans.
35. "Airport - Як добратись". lwo.aero. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
36. Kirillov, Roman (27 July 2005). "PILOTS CONVICTED FOR DISASTER DURING AIR SHOW". The Current Digest of the Russian Press. 56 (26): 9–10. Archived from the original on 30 March 2012. Retrieved 24 March 2011. While performing an aerobatic maneuver, an SU-27 jet crashed into a crowd of spectators, leaving 77 dead and another 543 injured. The commander of the plane's crew, Vladimir Toponar, was sentenced Friday to 14 years in prison, and copilot Yury Yegorov got eight years
37. "Ukraine plane crash: Five die as Antonov crash-lands near Lviv", BBC News, 4 October 2019, retrieved 24 October 2019
38. "Five people killed in An-12 crash-landing near Lviv airport", Ukrinform, 4 October 2019, retrieved 24 October 2019

External links

• Official website
• NOAA/NWS current weather observations
• Current weather
• ASN Accident history for UKLL
• Flightradar Lviv Airport