Germany’s Lufthansa airline would extend the servicing of its flights on the Odesa-Munich route opened for the summer navigation, to the 2016-2017 winter navigation.

An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that the airline said in a press release spread at a press conference of the company in Kyiv on Wednesday. The press conference was devoted to the 25 anniversary of Lufthansa Group’s operation in Ukraine.

According to the press release, since March 2016 the airline has been servicing two flights a week on the route.

Vice President of Lufthansa German Airlines for Sales and Services in Europe Heike Birlenbach said at the press conference that in Q2 2016 the group seeks to increase the transportation capacity on flights from/to Ukraine by 14%, including for Lufthansa’s flights by 11% and Austrian Airlines’ flights by 23% thanks to replacement of planes by more capacious ones.

Fokker planes of Austrian Airlines on flights to Odesa will be replaced by Embraer-195.

The Fokker plane replacement program envisages obtaining 17 Embraer planes by the airline. The program will be finished before 2017. The cost of one plane is EUR 52 million.

Asked about the restoration of flights to Kharkiv, Lufthansa Group Country Manager for Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia and Georgia Rene Koinzack recalled that the flights to the city were terminated in 2014.

“Then demand significantly plunged, and it was a commercial decision. We monitor this market, but we do not have the concrete date for restoring flights to Kharkiv. This should be commercially effective,” he said.

He said that the Ukrainian aviation market has positive prospects in general.

Lufthansa Group is presented by two airlines in Ukraine - Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines. Their Ukrainian market share is 13%.