Ukraine International Airlines

• The airline directly or indirectly controls Ontobet promotions limited, a company registered in Cyprus. The full list of beneficiaries is not disclosed.
• It is known that among the owners of the company, there are Ihor Kolomoisky (according to him, he owns 25% of the carrier's shares) and Pavlo Ovcharenko (head of Ukrtatnafta).

The supervisory board of the company:

• Aron Mayberg, Ukrainian businessman, a citizen of Israel, a former co-owner of Aerosvit airline.
• Oleksandra Nikitina, representative of Ontobet Promotions Limited (a shareholder). She was previously mentioned in the media as a UIA lawyer.
• Volodymyr Bogatsky, Vice President-Finance at UIA. In the Supervisory Board, he is a representative of Capital Investment Project LLC (a shareholder).

The company belongs to Investment Projects Management LLC, a Kyiv-based company controlled by the offshore Ontobet Promotions Limited.

CEO: Evgeniy Dykhne, a former top manager of Boryspil airport.

• Until March 2020, the beginning of the coronavirus-related crisis in Ukraine, UIA covered 80% of all domestic air transportation. The company's fleet includes 35 airliners. The average age of the fleet is 12 years.
• The company did not publish a report for 2019. It is known that losses for 2018 are more than $100 million, while the revenue is about $ 1 billion.
• According to Slidstvo.Info, by March 2020, the company owes UAH 1.2 billion to the state enterprise UkSATSE.
• In the beginning of 2020, UIA had 2,560 employees. In May 2020, the company announced that it would lay off 900 people. These are mainly administrative staff and flight attendants.
• They also have offices in 38 countries. Mainly in the capitals, including Baku, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Tashkent, Ashgabat, Minsk, and Moscow. Apart from that, they also have offices in New York, Tel Aviv, Rome, Beijing, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, Warsaw, Zurich, and Paris. There are also offices in the cities of Crawley (Great Britain) and Diegem (Belgium).

• In 1992, the airline was founded by the Civil Aviation Association and the largest Irish company GPA (later AerCap B.V.).
• In 1995, the state block of shares was transferred to the State Property Fund.
• In 1996, Austrian Airlines and Swissair became UIA shareholders.
• In 2000, another shareholder appeared, it was the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
• In 2011, after privatization, the company came under the control of the Cypriot Ontobet Promotions Limited. UIA explained that foreign investors left the capital of the enterprise, therefore they changed the ownership structure.
• In 2014, the company downsized its staff and closed a number of unprofitable flight routes.
• On the morning of January 8, 2020, a UIA Boeing flying Tehran-Kyiv was shot down by the Iranian military. This happened almost immediately after takeoff from the international airport Imam Khomeini.

167 passengers and nine crew members died. Onboard, there were citizens of seven countries: Iran, Canada, Sweden, Great Britain, Afghanistan, Germany, and Ukraine (nine crew members and two passengers).

In June 2020, Tehran was dragging out its investigation, did not decode the flight recorders, and refused to hand over the black boxes.

• In April 2020, UIA representatives asked the Cabinet of Ministers for a stabilization loan of $50 million at 5-6% interest to maintain the financial stability of the enterprise.

• In April 2017, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv ordered to arrest a UIA's Boeing as part of a criminal case on embezzlement of funds from Privatbank.

The company claimed the plane continues to operate. It belonged to Portuguese company Pennylane — Comercio Internacional LDA, and was leased by UIA and used on long-haul routes.

• In April 2020, the Kyiv regional branch of the Antimonopoly Committee launched an investigation of selling overpriced tickets by the airline.

In mid-March, at the height of the coronavirus crisis, an economy class ticket on the London-Kyiv flight cost UAH 24,000. Although a week before that, the price was UAH 10,000.

'If violations of competition law are found, the company faces a fine of up to 10% of the company's annual income,' said the head of the Kyiv regional branch of the AMCU Khmelnitskyy Aleksey.

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In June 2020, the airline got into an international scandal: 38 puppies died on board the plane that flew from Kyiv to Toronto.

'A shipment of approximately 500 puppies landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Saturday. When they arrived, the CFIA says 38 dogs were dead, and many of the other dogs were suffering from dehydration, weakness or vomiting.'

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It is clarified that the employees of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) (dealing with the protection of food, plants, and animals) are investigating all the circumstances of the tragic incident.

• In 2001, the airline became the official carrier of Pope John Paul II, and in 2008, UIA was the official carrier of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I during their visits to Ukraine.