Ukrposhta has launched a program of charter flights to the United States for fast and uninterrupted delivery of postal items
On October 30, in Boryspil, Ukrposhta in partnership with Antonov Airlines and Windrose Airlines sent the first An-124 Ruslan aircraft to the United States, which has already landed in New York. In the coming months, together with Windrose Airlines, Ukrposhta will send weekly aircraft of various configurations, depending on the needs of Ukrainian exporters. The program should ensure uninterrupted delivery of export postal items to the United States in the period of closed borders and cancelled flights.
The United States is one of the key countries for Ukrainian exporters. Ukrposhta delivers postal items abroad through a number of air partners: UIA, Turkish Airlines, Silk Way West Airlines, LOT. Ukrposhta’s new charter program enables sending postal items to the USA every week, without any transit countries, which means quickly and efficiently, regardless of the volumes. The program also eliminates problems with delivery times caused by cost increases and flight cancellations. With this first shipment by An-124 Ruslan, with a cargo capacity of 650 m³, Ukrposhta was able to send 125,000 postal items from Ukrainian small and medium-sized businesses (the equivalent of UAH 140 million).
"Since the beginning of the quarantine, despite cancelled flights and closed borders, we have been looking for ways to deliver abroad in order to fulfil our obligations and to support tens of thousands of Ukrainian export-oriented small and medium-sized enterprises. And our business indicators show that all efforts bring results. Since the beginning of the year, we have transported 3 million kg of export postal items. Even considering the fact that the cost of air conveyance has increased by 4 times for us, our customers have hardly noticed that. With the new charter program of regular flights, we will be able to ensure a reliable delivery of 75-80% of export shipments to the United States. And with passenger airlines, we will ensure the entire 100%. At the moment, I can say that we are fully ready for the high season, because especially this year we want to make our customers happy with timely delivery of holiday gifts,” Igor Smelyansky, CEO of Ukrposhta, commented.
The onset of the pandemic and the introduction of restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus have affected the work of all companies, including the posts. The main problem in delivery was widespread disruption in international supply chains, including air transportation. As shown by the data collected by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), global air-passenger traffic declined sharply in March 2020 by 54%. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, it is now 71% more difficult for exports to reach the final country of destination than in normal times. Ukrposhta is expanding the number of its partners to diffuse the impact of the pandemic on postal items from Ukraine and to get ready for the high season.