UEFA Euro 2012 was not only the highlight of the year of many football fans. It was also the main sport event for Poland and Ukraine – the host countries. However it required necessary improvements to be done in the infrastructure. Considerable changes were introduced in the four Ukrainian cities Kiev, Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Lviv to facilitate the transport of tourists and fans heading to see the matches. Similarly the local airports had to improve their services as well.
Donetsk's Sergei Prokofiev International Airport has a new terminal that was opened in April 2012 by the Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The main aim of this terminal was to cater for the heavy passenger traffic that was expected during the football matches. The terminal received hundreds of thousands of passenger every day of the tournaments.
The new terminal popularly referred to as Terminal D had a budget allocation of a $758m for its renovation set aside by the government. It is a 7-story building that is 23 meters high consisting of three main floors that are spread across a huge area measuring approximately 58,000m2. 5,000m2 of the space is meant for the numerous passenger lounges and 4,000m2 is meant for commercial facilities like restaurants and duty free shops.
The brand new arrivals section has up to 20 passport control cabins, a couple of custom check controls and four baggage carousels that make retrieval of luggage easier and faster. The departure section of the terminal consists of a check-in zone that has the capacity to handle 3,100 passengers at every single hour. It also has 22 passport control cabins and five gates that are used to board planes. Thanks to the new terminal the Donetsk airport can handle bigger planes and server more passengers.
Kiev, the Ukraine’s capital that hosted three matches during Euro 2012 opened a new terminal too. The Boryspil International Airport’s terminal has been designed according to top European standards and includes features like mobile walkways. The baggage handling capacity for this terminal surpasses that of Charles de Gaulle Airport of Paris as it can handle up to 3,000 baggage items per hour as compared to 2,733 for the latter. With this terminal, the airport controls the numbers in terms of handling the most passenger traffic within Ukraine. It has the capacity of holding six Boeing 747s and 5 Boeing 737s at once as it is served by 11 jet bridges.
The Lviv Danylo Halytskyi International Airport's new terminal was also renovated to handle passenger traffic during the football championship. The terminal is much smaller than the one in Donetsk airport; it has the capacity to handle 1,900 passengers every hour. The renovations were extended to the runway as it was expanded to be able to handler bigger aircrafts. These renovations were completed in less than 22 months and now the terminal serves many more airlines than before. Among airlines that use this airport are Aerosvit Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Yamal Airlines, UM Airlines, Sky Wings Airline, Lufthansa Regional, LOT Polish Airlines, Austrian Airlines and many more.