The Association "Airports of Ukraine" of civil aviation (AAUCA), which includes 95 enterprises and organizations from 15 countries of the world, including 21 Ukrainian airports and leading participants of the air transportation market, has addressed the government with a request for state support due to the suspension of flights during the quarantine.

Respective letter addressed to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Dmytro Razumkov and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal was made public on the website of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv International Airport on Tuesday, March 31.

The association explained that, despite the quarantine and suspension of flights, international airports cannot be temporarily conserved, adding that operation of airports is not only a socio-economic task, but also an element of support for proper level of national security of the country.

"Without support, the state airports and the air traffic service UkSATSE [Ukrainian State Air Traffic Services Enterprise] will be unable to fulfill their tasks, in particular in the interests of security and defense of the state, and will have to stop their activities and any flights in Ukraine's air space," it said.

The association asked the government to take a range of urgent measures, in particular to approve a state targeted program of support for the aviation industry, allocate from the national budget financing directly to the airports and UkSATSE to ensure flights of defense ministry's planes, provide the airports and aviation enterprises with direct non-refundable financial aid to ensure their minimum operation, and to exempt the aviation enterprises from VAT, a single contribution to the compulsory state social insurance and income tax for the second through fourth quarters in 2020.