Bees Airline of Ukraine operates four 737-800s; announces plans to expand from Odessa

Bees Airline (IATA code 7B) is a relatively new carrier that launched in Ukraine in March 2021. It currently operates a fleet of four 189-seat 737-800s, all of which were previously flown by Ukraine International Airlines. Its main base is at Kiev Zhulyany Airport, but it recently revealed plans to expand from Odessa with a number of new routes.

After launching scheduled service with a flight from Kiev to Yerevan in Armenia on 29 April, Bees Airline quickly added regular flights from the Ukrainian capital to Batumi in Georgia, Larnaca in Cyprus and Tbilisi in Georgia. From the end of June, it also began seasonal service to Bourgas and Varna in Bulgaria as well as several destinations in Greece. It also added 2-weekly service to Alicante on 20 August. A domestic service to Odessa commenced on 14 October with Sharjah service set to follow from 20 October. Just before Christmas, the airline plans to add 3-weekly service to Barcelona.

Odessa opportunities

Bees Airline started scheduled services between Odessa and Yerevan back in June, but has recently added domestic service to Kiev IEV and plans to add additional new routes to Prague (21 October), Tbilisi (22 October) and Ganja in Azerbaijan (from 1 November). In addition to scheduled services, the airline is currently operating a number of charter flights, notably to Hurghada, Marsa Alam and Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, as an analysis of the airline’s weekly flights for the last seven days (shown in the table below) makes clear.

With the recent signing of a Common Aviation Area Agreement between the EU and Ukraine, it will be interesting to see how the airline responds to the opportunities that this offers. Wizz Air, for one, has already announced plans to launch new EU routes from a number of airports in Ukraine.