• Viktor Moroz

    Managing Partner,
    Suprema Lex

  • Regina Say

    Junior Lawyer,
    Suprema Lex

Suprema Lex

Address: 8 Cosmonavta Comarova Avenue, Kyiv, 03067, Ukraine

Tel: +380 44 384 0557
E-mail: office@supremalex.law
Web-site: www.supremalex.law

Suprema Lex is a multi-disciplinary, industry-focused Ukrainian law firm consisting of highly-qualified lawyers who work proactively to help their clients attain their business goals and generate commercial advantages. The firm provides full range legal services to national and international companies that do business in Ukraine and overseas and to private people.

The firm’s main principles are an individual approach to every client, knowledge of the finest peculiarities of Ukrainian and international legislation, confidentiality and personal responsibility for the services provided.

The earnest of your success in deciding any legal question is professional competence of specialists to whom you apply.

Highly-qualified lawyers and attorneys who have high-quality legal education and excellent experience in different branches of law work at Suprema Lex.

Suprema Lex offers a full range of legal services and maintains a high reputation for its expertise in a wide array of practices, such as transport law (including aviation law and maritime law), corporate law, taxation, competition & antitrust, M&A, insolvency, dispute resolution, banking & finance law, land and real estate law, construction law, intellectual property, branding, licensing, domain disputes, media law, sport law, family law, labor & employment, medical & pharmaceutical law, criminal law, etc.

The firm possesses extensive industry-specific experience and consults clients in various market sectors, including agriculture, automotive, aviation, banking and finance, energy, infrastructure and transport, insurance, media and advertising, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, private equity, real estate and construction, retail and consumer goods, telecommunications and IT.

Membership: Ukrainian Bar Association (UBA), Association of Advocates of Ukraine (AAU), working groups under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and Committee on Business Protection under the Federation of Employers of Ukraine.

The portfolio of our clients includes international and domestic companies that require deep expertise and specialized legal advice from legal experts in the above practice areas.

We develop innovative strategies and provide efficient solutions to the most complex and challenging matters within the shortest period of time. With us nothing is impossible.

Transportation in the 21st Century

 

The twenty-first century is a time of opportunities and technologies to carry out transportation in a more comfortable, safer and faster way. Everyone has the opportunity to choose that mode of transport that is more beneficial for him or her. Unfortunately, on the territory of Ukraine air transport is not as popular as in Europe, although it has a number of advantages.

So, the special advantage of air transport, which distinguishes it from land-based types, is the speed of transportation of passengers, luggage, cargo, taking into account all the time you need to spend getting to your destination from the moment of departure.

However, air transport is quite expensive and for a certain category of the population quite inaccessible.

As practice shows, residents of the former CIS countries are still more likely to use land transportation, which is cheaper but not as fast or reliable.  The main disadvantage of land transport is accidents, which in turn is accompanied by a delay in the contract of carriage,  and as a result of default by the carrier.

Over the past 5 years, the accident rate of land transport is 40%, while the accident rate of air transport is 15-20%.

But,  in our opinion, when the question is about transporting goods, which is a priority and the limited shelf life of AA transportation is more reliable for entrepreneurs.

In addition, the use of ultra-light aircraft in agriculture is good motivation to develop agricultural aviation in Ukraine.

There are pros and cons to both modes of transport, and different legislation governing the relationships between the passenger and the carrier.

Air transportation of passengers and their baggage is carried out on the basis of an air carriage agreement. It is between the air transport company (carrier), on the one hand, and individuals or with various organizations, travel agencies, on the other.

With regard to the definition of the concept of the air carriage contract. It is an agreement on the transportation of baggage and passengers by air, including the period when they are under the control of the air carrier. Air transportation is performed on the basis of the contract. Each air carriage agreement and its terms and conditions shall be evidenced by a document for carriage issued by the aviation enterprise or its authorized organizations or persons (agents).

The carrier and the passenger are parties to the contract, with their rights and obligations. Under a contract on the air carriage of a passenger, the carrier undertakes to transfer the passenger of the aircraft to the destination with the provision of a place on the aircraft performing the flight specified in the ticket, and in the case of carriage of baggage belonging to the passenger, to also deliver the baggage to the destination and issue it.

Each air carriage contract shall be certified by a travel document issued by the carrier or its agents. This document is a ticket. It is a personalized document of standardized form, in fact, it’s a contract of carriage between the airline and the passenger. The ticket is proof of payment of transportation in the amount specified in the form. It contains all the information necessary and sufficient for the implementation of mutual settlements between carriers within one route. The terms of delivery of passengers and baggage are determined by the rules of air transportation. In this case, the passenger is obliged to pay for the transportation and transportation of baggage at the established rates.

The air ticket is registered and contains all the necessary features for the flight (boarding pass for the flight, package coupons and passenger coupon). The ticket can be specified for several persons (for example, family members), in addition, tickets can be group ones (issued, as a rule, for tourists). The Law of Ukraine On Transport defines the composition of rail, road, river, air, sea transport and other modes of transport (vehicles, facilities, financial resources, transport equipment, communications, as well as industrial, construction, trade and supply enterprises, educational institutions, health, physical culture and sports, culture, research, design organizations assigned to enterprises, associations, institutions and organizations of various forms of ownership).

So, with regard to the ground transportation process of goods, the issue here is vehicles via which transportation is carried out (rolling stock of railway transport, sea vessels, river vessels, rolling stock of road transport).

In railway transport, the rail freight carrier is the railway. According to Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine On Railway Transport the railway is a statutory territorial and sectoral association, which includes enterprises, institutions and organizations of railway transport and which, under centralized management, carries out transportation of passengers and goods in a certain region of the transport network.

The railway freight carrier must possess a license for cargo transportation and a certificate of conformity according to DSTU 2296 or a certificate of recognition of a foreign certificate. Certification acti­vity in railway transport is a mandatory part of the procedure for substantiation of the possibility of economic entities to carry out transportation of goods and is carried out in the manner prescribed by the Regulation on certification activity in railway transport, as approved by the order of the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine of 1 June 1998.

According to Article 8 of the Charter of Railways of Ukraine approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of 6 April 1998, transportation of goods is carried out in cars belonging to the railroads park or leased at the railroads, and also in cars belonging to the enterprises, organizations, organizations, citizens — subjects of business activity including those located beyond the borders of Ukraine. The leasing of wagons is done within Ukraine in the manner prescribed by the Instruction on the procedure for the leasing of freight cars, as approved by the order of the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine of 28 April 1997 No. 151.

Thus, a rail freight carrier is a business entity that owns or uses a railway vehicle legally for the carriage of goods in accordance with a license and certificate that confirms its economic competence in this area.

Going back to air transportation, we wish to note that in the past 5 years several low-cost carriers have been attracted to Ukraine which, in turn, have enabled air transportation to become cheaper and more accessible to ordinary citizens.

However, the price of air transportation is still quite high for passenger transportation and baggage transportation, so the most popular mode of transport is land transport.

Baggage-personal belongings of the passenger are carried on an aircraft in agreement with the carrier. Checked baggage includes baggage delivered by the passenger under the responsibility of the carrier and which is carried in the aircraft’s baggage compartment. Unchecked baggage means the baggage of a passenger which is carried onto the plane by a passenger.

A passenger who intends to make a claim for delay of baggage must send it to the claim service of the carrier no later than 21 days from the date of loss of baggage and no later than 6 months for domestic transportation.

Baggage is regarded as lost if it is not found after 21 days from the date of its planned arrival. Baggage arriving at an airport is stored free of charge for 2 days, including the day of arrival. If the baggage has not been claimed, it is stored at the airport for one month for international transportation and for 6 months for domestic transportation in accordance with the established procedure.

The creation of favorable conditions for development of civil aviation is necessary for greater Europeanization of civil aviation in Ukraine, taking into account the following.

First, attracting new investors and air carriers will make this service more ­accessible.

Secondly, by increasing “supply” this service will be provided on more favorable terms which will, in turn, help to make this type of transportation more popular for Ukrainians, for example, going to the United States or Europe.

In addition, due to the popularization of this mode of transportation, over time there will be a need to create more specific legislation to regulate these relationships.

The importance of drawing up the basic rules and principles of air transportation is an extremely important direction in the development of civil aviation in Ukraine.