Ryanair develops plans to resume flights to Ukraine after ceasefire

Ryanair is developing plans to return to Ukraine amid hopes that US President Donald Trump will help end the war with Russia.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said Ryanair was developing a plan to start flights within four to six weeks once the war ends.

"I would very much hope it’s this year. I think one of the things that Trump can deliver, hopefully, would be an earlier resolution of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine," O’Leary said in a comment to The Telegraph.

Ryanair plans to open around 24 routes to Kyiv and Lviv. The capacity will be provided by redirecting planes based at airports such as Stansted and Paris Orly to serve these cities.

O’Leary noted that an official cessation of combat actions would be necessary to meet the requirements of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

"Ultimately it will need some kind of ceasefire because EASA won’t allow anything to fly over there unless they have some kind of reasonable certainty that there won’t be missiles flying," O’Leary said.

O’Leary said Kyiv and Lviv were "ready to go", and infrastructure such as baggage carousels were checked weekly to ensure its functioning.

O'Leary said that resuming flights to Odesa might take longer due to the level of damage. Some airports in Ukraine’s east and south have been intensely bombarded and destroyed to the ground, including the airport in Kherson, where Ryanair used to fly. 

O’Leary travelled to Ukraine in 2024, visiting Kyiv airport, meeting with the country's infrastructure minister and presenting what he called "a radical air transport recovery plan".

He said that the 10-hour rail journey from Poland was "painful" and that the train was not a practical way to come home for millions of Ukrainians displaced across Europe.

"There was a lot of excitement about flights coming back. There will be enormous traffic flows even in the very early days from reuniting friends and family and huge amounts of inbound investment in rebuilding the economy. We will be front and centre in that," he added.

Ukraine completely closed its airspace to civil aircraft on 24 February 2022. 

It was reported in November 2024 that Ukraine's State Aviation Administration was exploring the possibility of gradually and partially reopening airspace to civil aviation, with Lviv in the country's west potentially becoming the first city to resume airport operations.