KYIV. May 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The issue of the arrival of a large low-cost airline in Europe – Ryanair – to Ukraine depends on several factors and it should be accompanied by equal conditions for the whole aviation market, President of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA, Kyiv) Yuriy Miroshnikov has said.

"Sooner of later Ryanair will arrive and the issue is whether Ukrainian infrastructure is ready for its arrival. The observation of the no discrimination principle is in play. We can guess on what conditions Ryanair would come. We roughly know their practice in other European countries. We believe this practice should be open for any carriers, including for UIA. If this happens everything will be fine. But discrimination in favor of Ryanair would be wrong," he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.

As reported, Ryanair is holding talks with Lviv on flights to the city.

"I don’t think that we will discuss flights to Odesa. Ukraine today can be considered only as an additional route to our key markets. They are Italy, Spain, Britain, Ireland and Germany where there are many popular routes closer than Ukraine. Broadly speaking, our business model is that each additional flight increases our production cost per passenger and we expect returns on investments. There is demand in Ukraine for flights to many countries. These are mostly flights to the east and north where Ryanair does not have the right to fly," Ryanair Chief Commercial Officer David O'Brien said in an interview with Forbes Ukraine.

UIA was founded in 1992. It is the largest Ukrainian airline. Its base airport is Boryspil airport. UIA's fleet consists of 31 aircraft: 27 medium-haul and four long-haul aircraft.

According to the National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market of Ukraine, Cypriot Ontobet Promotions Limited held 15.91% in UIA. Another 74.16% belonged to Capital Investment Project LLC (Kyiv).

Capital Investment Project LLC belonged to Investment Projects Management LLC, the owner of which has been Ontobet Promotions Limited since June 2012.

One of the ultimate beneficiaries of UIA is businessman Ihor Kolomoisky.