We flew two legs with Ukraine International Airline, the domestic leg from Lviv to Kiev and the international leg from Kiev to Minsk. Both legs were short flights so it may not be an accurate representation of UIA on long-haul flights.

UIA is the flag carrier and largest airline in Ukraine, with its head office in Kiev and its main hub at Kiev’s Boryspil International Airport. It operates domestic and international passenger flights and cargo services to Europe, the Middle East, the United States, Canada, and Asia.

At Lviv airport, we retuned the rental car and proceeded to the counter for check-in. Since we arrived one and half hours before the flight, most of the passengers had checked in already. The staff at the counter told us that we can use other mobile boarding pass, so this was a positive step in printing less paper. Most people throw away their air tickets after the flight anyway.

Lviv airport is quite small, with flights serving mainly European cities, except for mid-haul flights like to Istanbul. There was an advertisement for the low-cost airline – Ernest Airlines – with flights from Lviv to Milan and Venice. It is actually an Italy-based airline, with its hub in Milan. 

**Update: Unfortunately, as of 21 Jan 2019, flights between Lviv and Italy have been cancelled and the airline plans to launch other destinations. This is a strange move considering that air traffic between Lviv and Italy actually increased during the period of flight operations.

PS036 LWO-KBP 17:05 – 18:15

View of our plane on the tarmac. Boarding started at 4.45pm. The flight to Kiev was quite full. PS36 had a duration of 1h 10 min, with the time in the air around 40 minutes. After boarding was complete, we pushed off on time. There was not much air traffic at Lviv so we took off on time. 

We were lucky to be able to catch the sunset from the seats of our plane. During the flight, water was served and quickly collected back. There was no snack at all, unlike the Singapore Airlines or Malaysia Airlines shuttle flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

Water served on board our short one hour flight.

We landed at Kiev airport and had to go through immigration because we were leaving Ukraine officially. Our luggage was tagged all the way to Minsk so we did not have to collect it at the carousel and check it in again. Queues at Kiev Borispol were quite long because it was evening time, so many flights were departing around this time period. Luckily we managed to make it for our flight and I could only spend 20 minutes at the lounge before our flight was open for boarding.

PS893 KBP – MSQ 19:40 – 21:45

The flight was only half-full. We were allocated seats around the middle of the cabin. I suppose not many Ukrainians want to travel to Belarus because the culture is pretty much similar, with a former Soviet history. Direct flights between Minsk and Kiev are operated by Ukraine International Airlines and Belavia (national carrier of Belarus) on a daily basis, with frequency of 4-5 times. Flight time between the two capitals is only one hour.

The flight departed 10 minutes late because there was a queue on the runway. Nevertheless, by the time we touched down at Minsk airport, we were on time.

Even though it was an international flight, we were served a cup of water only. There was a food trolley selling some snacks but we were not hungry and did not purchase anything on board.

We waited about 10 minutes for the luggage to come out. Immigration was fast because there were not many foreigners visited Minsk. I was surprised that no questions were asked about our passport because of the 30 day visa free regime. They did not ask for any documentation, merely scrutinised our passports with a magnifying glass as if we were using counterfeit ones. After retrieving our baggage, we took the airport bus to the city centre.

Overall, I cannot comment much on the UIA service because both flights that I took were short-haul. The service was not the best and also not the worst, the stewardesses were merely doing their jobs and they ensured safety in the flight. I chose UIA over Belavia due to the more competitive prices and UIA has a better safety rating than the latter. I cannot really complain about anything other than the fact that their planes are quite old, so hope they will renew their fleet soon because some of their planes date back to 1995.