Boryspil International Airport and Visa are implementing barrier-free principles in joint projects
25 April 2024
On 24 April 2024, Oschadbank and Visa hosted a large-scale forum ‘My Barrier-Free’ in Kyiv . Its participants discussed the steps that the state, the public and business should take to ensure an inclusiveness in Ukraine where veterans, people with disabilities and people with reduced mobility can work and fulfil themselves in the best possible way.
Boryspil Airport team participated in the forum as part of the Barrier-Free Airport project in implementation of the National Strategy for Creating Barrier-Free Space in Ukraine initiated by the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska «Without Barriers». Even before the aggressor’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Boryspil International Airport was chosen as the basic infrastructure facility where barrier-free standards would be implemented as a common social norm and subsequently scaled up to other airports in Ukraine.
Representatives of Visa arrived at Boryspil Airport to discuss further long-term cooperation in the implementation of a joint inclusive passenger programme. During the visit, the main fields of further cooperation in the development of a barrier-free space at the airport were outlined.
‘We would like to confirm that we are happy to continue our partnership with Boryspil Airport, which is one of our key partners in Ukraine. The main joint task is to make passengers feel as comfortable as possible – this is our priority in cooperation,’ said Oleksandr Yablunivskyi, Vice President, Products and Solutions for Visa in Ukraine, Georgia, CIS countries and South-Eastern Europe.
After all, Visa, the world leader in digital payments, is a long-standing reliable partner of the airport, with whom a number of projects have been implemented. In particular, access to business lounges was provided, and an updated Fast Track channel was opened for facilitated passenger servicing in Terminal D to significantly reduce the time required to complete all mandatory procedures before departure and upon arrival: check-in, baggage claim, and aviation security control.
Moreover, Visa, together with the «Bezbariernist» non-governmental organization, arranged a series of trainings as part of the «Barrier-Free Boryspil» project, where airport employees were sucsessfully trained under a programme on main principles of barrier-free communication, ethics of communication with passengers with hearing impairments and basic sign language skills. The airport is now committed to continuing fruitful cooperation to build a barrier-free space in order to make the airport an accessible and comfortable environment for everyone.
«Boryspil Airport is at the highest level of readiness for recovery and barrier-free accessibility is an integral part of this process. After all, the transformation of the airport space requires a long time, efforts and assistance of our partners to make Boryspil Airport even more accessible for all passengers and visitors. Thanks to our partnership with Visa, in recent years, we have already laid the foundation for the successful development of inclusiveness at the airport. We are grateful to our partners for confirming their support and desire to continue cooperation to make the main air gate of the country comfortable for everyone,» said Oleksii Dubrevskyy, Boryspil Airport CEO.
The partners personally evidenced that Boryspil International Airport is continuing to maintain the infrastructure and retention of qualified personnel to enable the rapid resumption of normal operations. During the discussion, the parties outlined fields for future projects and confirmed the expansion of cooperation to create a barrier-free environment.