Major airports in Ukraine

There are dozens of airports in Ukraine. However indeed operate only those which are in major Ukrainian cities such as Kyiv, Odessa, Lviv, Khakiv, Donetsk, Simferopol and a few others.

Two busiest airports Boryspil and Zhuliany are located in Kyiv while the rest are in major Ukrainian cities.

Major airports in Ukraine are:

Lviv (LWO), also known as Lwow, Snilow airport which is the main in Western Ukraine.
Odessa (ODS) – main hub for southern Ukraine.
Simferopol (SIP) – gateway to Crimea.
Kharkiv (HRK) in the East where budget airlines “Pegasus” operate from Istanbul.
Donetsk (DOK) – major airport in eastern Ukraine.

I’m going to tell you how to manage to save money and time while getting from every airport in Ukraine to the city.
Here are directions for major airports in Ukraine below.

Tip!!! To order taxi ask locals to call it for you. See taxi in Ukraine page for more…

Lviv Internationl Airport
(LWO)

Lviv International Airport, also known as Lvov, Snilow is a main gateway to the country’s West and a beautiful city of Lviv itself.
A brand new terminal is the newest out of all airports in Ukraine. It is likely that many new low-cost airlines will be flying here pretty soon.
Location is perfect. Only 7 km west of the downtown and is easy accessible by public transport and even on foot 😛

See Lviv map.

1) Trolleybus #9 will get you to Lviv National University’s main building in 25 mins. It is the last stop of the trolleybus which is located in Lviv center and where students can always give you further directions.
Buy a ticket from the driver (1,25 UAH) and don’t forget to validate it.

2) Bus (Marshutka) #48 runs from the airport through the southernwestern part of the town, passing the downtown near the Opera House then following to northern districts.
Take it in case there is no trolleybus or you know exactly it goes where you need.
Pay directly to the driver. Don’t expect a ticket, unless you really need, ask for it.

3) Taxi
Arrange with taxi drivers for not more than 40 UAH to the city center
or ask somebody to call “Komfort taxi” for you: +38 0936585555 or +38 06735305555.

Odessa International Airport
(ODS)

Odessa International Airport serves a lot of flights to Ukraine, especially in summer as it is Ukraine’s prime beach and sea destination as well as main gateway to southern Ukraine.
It is located just west of the city and city center is a 20 minute drive.

See Odessa map.

1) Bus #208 stops right at the exit and will take you to the train station and city center.
Pay 2,5 UAH to the driver on board.

2) Taxi
Again, ask somebody to call taxi +38 048 7111200 or +38 048 7310310. You will have to wait for about 20 minutes. The drive will cost about 30 UAH instead of200 UAH offered by private taxi drivers.

Simferopol International Airport
(SIP)

Simferopol airport is fully packed with holiday makers in summer as opposed to winter when it stands breathless like a ghost.
It is likely that your way will be straight to Simferopol train station where you’ll immediately proceed to your destination as there is almost nothing to do in the city itself.

WizzAir budget airlines fly there from Kyiv all year round, so use it in low season (May, September, early October).

Transport

1) A lot of Buses in summer connect it with Simferopol train station from where you proceed to other destinations.

2) Taxi.
Sevtaksi offers airport transfers to any destination in Crimea with fixed prices which you can see on their web-page. (Unfortunately only in Russian). To find the price for getting to your destination, I suggest you find its Russian spelling on Wikipedia and then see how much it costs.
For example, ecomon car to Yalta (Ялта) in summer season of 2011 costed 380 UAH. Quite decent as for me.
You can book it on skype or by filling out the form.

See also how I suggest using cyrilics spelling from Wikipedia when buying train ticket on-line.

Kharkiv International Airport
(HRK)

It is one of the airports in Ukraine that was specially built for European Football championship 2012.
Kharkiv airport is situated on the southern edge of the city and is well connected by public transport.

See Kharkiv map.

1) Trolleybus #5 will take you to prospect Gagarina and then continue toUniversytetskametro station.
Get off on pr. Gagarina and chnge to metro if heading to Pivdenny (South) train station wich is the main one in the city.
Continue to Universytetska metro if heading to the city center.

2) Buses #115 and #119 will also take you to pr. Gagarina metro stop, while #119 continues North to Naukova and Botanichny Sad metro stops.
Bus #255 goes to city’s North-East towards Akademika Barabashova andStudenstkametro stops while Bus #152 continues even further to Geroiv Pratsi metro in far North-East.
Pay to the driver on board.

3) Taxi,
Especially useful if you arrive at night from Istanbul with Pegasus airlines.
Just ask somebody to order a taxi for you: Motor +38 0933354054 or Solnishko +38 0935048101 will take you where you need for about 30-40 UAH within the city.
Private drivers will ask for about 80-100 UAH, so try tpo bargain a bit.

Donetsk International Airport
(DOK)

Donetsk airport being located just north of the city is the main gateway to eastern Ukraine. However, independent travelers are rare birds here unless some special interest like Euro 2012 semi-finals match or other occasion.

See Donetsk map.

Trolleybus #9 and #10 will take you to the city center.

Taxi
Some of the cheapest are Madi +38 0506969796 or Lux +38 050 6068989 will drive you for less than 40 UAH.
Simply ask somebody to order it for you. Most people will be happy to help a friendly foreigner.