"UIA is an excellent choice"
B Jansen (Netherlands)
✅ Verified Review | I flew from Amsterdam Schiphol to Beijing Capital via Kiev and the same route back 10 days later. From the reviews I read I expected this trip to be awful. I was pleasantly surprised by the smooth check in at Amsterdam, I was even allowed to pick my own seats without additional charge for both flights. Check in at Beijing, however, took ages and the ground crew were not very kind. Cabin crew members on all four flights looked a bit cranky, but actually were very sweet. I was served 2 pretty okay meals on the long-haul flights with juice, coffee or tea and water. On the flights from and to Amsterdam I ordered a very tasty panini for only €3 and was also served as much water as I'd like. The seats on the E190 were the most comfortable, because they were as wide as the premium economy seats on the B767, but the other narrower seats still had a 32" seat pitch, so I could still enjoy a very comfortable flight. On the flight from Kiev to Beijing I received a blanket, sleeping mask, ear plugs and earphones, from Beijing to Kiev I just received the blanket and earphones. There's only inflight entertainment on the B767 flights, which looks like they popped a good old VHS with chinese subtitles into the recorder, so I just took my tablet with me. This definitely wasn't the best airline I've ever flown, but when you just relax and think about the money you saved to spend at your destination, you'll find that UIA is an excellent choice.
Aircraft | E190, Boeing 767-300ER, Boeing 737-800 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | PEK to AMS via KBP |
Date Flown | January 2017 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"narrow and camped seats"
D Edwards (Belgium)
✅ Verified Review | Hopeless service. Flew from Chisinau to Brussels via Kiev with UIA - the company managed to lose only my bag (from all other passengers), but the worst part is that there is no way to find someone helpful working for this carrier. Most phone lines are either non-operational (calls drop or nobody picking up during office hours), or if by magic getting to a live person they usually are either unable to mumble a reply or a playing a game of "it's not my area of expertise, please call a different number". Obviously, no bag found so far. And that's only one part of the story. Onboard the staff were cold and borderline rude. The only thing provided free on a 3 hour flight was water. Absolutely no entertainment. Narrow and camped seats. Just to prove their point to a tall passenger (over 2m high), the flight attendant prohibited anyone on a full flight to take an exit seat (unless having paid for this privilege). Bottom line - fly at your own risk, only hand luggage and only if you have a thick skin and you really have no other option.
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | KIV to BRU via KBP |
Date Flown | January 2017 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"unfriendly and emotionless"
20 reviews Kevin Angdreas (Indonesia)
✅ Verified Review | Istanbul to New York via Kiev with Ukraine International that I never even heard of. The reason is because the ticket flight for the trip was cheap. My first flight from Istanbul to Kiev was okay, but the interior of the plane look outdated, the seat is really small and the armrest is hollow plastic. The stewardess are really unfriendly and emotionless. They barely greet and smile at you, even help the flight passengers to lift their bag to the cabin. They just watched and stared at you. During my next flight from Kiev to New York, the trip was worse. The seat looked cheap and small. The foods were decent. However, you have to pay for drink such as soft drinks and wine. The worse was during the trip, there was a leakage of water from the air-con above me.
Aircraft | Boeing 767-300 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | IST to JFK via KBP |
Date Flown | December 2016 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"decent but basic business class"
A Hall (United Kingdom)
✅ Verified Review | Gatwick to Ankara via Kiev. I was pleasantly surprised with the flight, the cabin crew were efficient and attentive throughout. Drinks were offered before take off and during the flight, meals were hot and delicious. There was no in-flight entertainment, but the complimentary papers kept me busy until I fell asleep. The transfer at Kiev is a pain, as all transit passengers have to go through another security check, and only one was in operation, this took about an hour to get through. You cannot book your seat on line if travelling from Gatwick, so I requested a window seat at check in, only to be told that all the window seats had been allocated. When we boarded the plane, there were only a few passengers in business class, and just about all the window seats were unoccupied - very strange. For the price, this airline is fine if you want decent but basic business class service.
Aircraft | Boeing 737 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Seat Type | Business Class |
Route | LGW to ESB via KBP |
Date Flown | December 2016 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"schedule is pretty comfortable"
Caleb Petersen (United States)
✅ Verified Review | New York JFK to Kiev with Ukraine International. If you want to fly to / from Ukraine-US, this is not only the cheapest way to do so, but perfectly harmless, and the schedule is pretty comfortable in both directions (since it's non-stop, and arrivals in both directions are in the late afternoon / early evening giving you time to fall asleep and try to reset your circadian rhythm). I had no problems when I flew and that considering that my carry-on bag was moderately over regulation limits but the people at the check-in counter gave me no trouble. Not sure what purists are complaining about here - there's no inflight entertainment but you can use your cell phones and laptops for that. I also like that you can buy one-way tickets a-la-carte (i.e. at exactly 1/2 the price of a round-trip ticket - many other airlines greedily charge 75%+).
Aircraft | Boeing 767-200 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | JFK to KBP |
Date Flown | February 2016 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"worst flights ever"
B Larven (Netherlands)
✅ Verified Review | Amsterdam to Bangkok via Kiev. Worst flights ever. I flew with many different (budget) airlines and all experiences were quite good, but I can't say anything positive about this (return) flight. They didn't pass with drinks during the flight besides mealtime. I asked for a window seat online, got an aisle seat instead. With lunch and dinner they didn't offer any choice and they gave the same meal twice (both with the same tasteless fish). I couldn't order water during mealtime, only tomato juice or tea/coffee. The seats were very close to each other, I couldn't even eat my meal without turning my head. There was no soap or toilet paper at the toilets during my return flight. Zero entertainment - I was finally sleeping, with my chair leaning to the back a bit. There was turbulence and one of the staff members just pushed my chair very roughly to the front to get my seat straight and told me that I had to sit straight because of the turbulence. I was shocked how rudely she behaved. The staff didnt smile and were constantly annoyed by people in the plane. Their English was quite bad and they had miscommunicataion very often with clients. Instead of smiling, they reacted very grumpy and impolite. I will never fly again with UIA again.
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | AMS to BKK via KBP |
Date Flown | November 2016 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"communication and service skills bad"
B Marshall (Netherlands)
✅ Verified Review | Larnaca to Amsterdam via Kiev with Ukraine International. Everything went wrong. There was a snow storm in Kiev and we had to go to Kharkov airport to land. There everyone had to wait with no information in very long lines. After a few hours we flew back to Kiev and then the long waiting started. We had to stand in line for 6 hours to hear that there was no flight any time soon and the next day we could fly with KLM. We had to stand in another line to get our bording cards and a hotel/meal. In the other line we found out that there was no hotel anymore so we would have to wait for 12 hours on the airport. The people working there were very rude and didn't want to help us at all. After waiting for another 3 hours and getting very angry they booked us a hotel. Breakfast and transfer would be arranged, but didn't come the next day. Communication and service skills are very bad.
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | LCA to AMS via KBP |
Date Flown | November 2016 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Wifi & Connectivity | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"seat was very comfortable"
Volodymyr Ivan (Canada)
Kiev to Munich with Ukraine International. A good airline, the food is great. If you fly economy you will need to pay but it's is cheap I paid €3 for a delicious sub sandwich. The service is nice and overall this airline is good value for money. Also the seat was very comfortable the only problem is that there is no entertainment.
Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | KBP to MUC |
Date Flown | August 2016 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"seats are uncomfortable"
L Franks (United Kingdom)
✅ Verified Review | Kiev to London Gatwick with Ukraine International. I managed to book an aisle seat online. I like an aisle seat as I need to stand up fairly frequently during the flight. However when I was given my boarding pass it wasn't the seat I had requested. The people at the desk showed no interest at all. This was all the more annoying since people coming after me did manage to get aisle seats. Seats are uncomfortable. No inflight entertainment. They knew they were going to be late but they had us all on the plane sitting down uncomfortably for over an hour.
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | KBP to LGW |
Date Flown | October 2016 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"nightmarish experience"
Gerassimos Fourlanos (Sweden)
✅ Verified Review | For the last two years I have been flying between Chisinau and Stockholm via Kiev with UIA. It was never possible to check in online other than with the assistance of the agent who has been selling me the tickets. As such, it is interesting that for two years Ukrainian Airlines has done nothing to fix the problem. But the worst happened during my latest flight: Chisinau to Stockholm return in October. On the return flight even my agent could not check me in on line for the leg Kiev - Chisinau, and at the airport in Stockholm they could not check me in either for that leg. Worst still, the check-in counter in Stockholm could only check in my suitcase until Kiev, not until Chisinau, which was my final destination. Thus, in Kiev I had to get out of the transit hall, get my suitcase, pass through all the controls again, check in again, all that in one hour and ten minutes. An unforgettable nightmarish experience. The most nightmarish aspect was not so much the stress but the attitudes of Ukrainian staff everywhere, at the security checks, at the passport controls, and, worst of all, at the checking in of the UIA counters. Hostile, misanthropic, sadistic attitudes, totally unfriendly and unhelpful, they even seemed amused by my ordeal. It was like experiencing the Soviet Union anew, where the petty bureaucrat behaves like a small tyrant. For me that was the last straw. I will never fly with UIA again and I will never fly via Kiev again. Enough is enough.
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | ARN to KIV via KBP |
Date Flown | October 2016 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |