# AAUCA Presents Its Honorary Badge to ACI EUROPE Director General Olivier Jankovec _At the 36th ACI EUROPE Annual Congress in Prague, Ukraine's airports recognised the body that stood with them through four closed years, and set out a plan to reopen._ By Viktoriia Hrechukha · 2026-06-29 · Airports --- Prague, 23 June 2026. At the 36th ACI EUROPE Annual Congress and General Assembly, held in Prague from 22 to 24 June 2026, the Association “Airports of Ukraine” Civil Aviation (AAUCA) presented the AAUCA Honorary Badge to Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI EUROPE. The certificate accompanying the badge carries the added designation “Friend of Ukrainian Airports”. The award was presented in person by AAUCA President Petro Lypovenko. ### UKRAINE BROUGHT A PLAN TO PRAGUE Ukraine's airports have boarded no passengers since February 2022. They did not come to Prague to ask for help. The Ukrainian delegation set out its vision for restoring the national airport network once the airspace reopens. > “For more than four years, Ukrainian airports have not simply been preserving infrastructure, we have been preserving the foundation of the entire national aviation system,” said Oleksiy Dubrevskyy, CEO of Boryspil International Airport. The airports have preserved their qualified workforce, operational capabilities and readiness to resume, so the national system can restart on the first safe day rather than be rebuilt from nothing. ### A RECOGNITION THAT RUNS BOTH WAYS At last year's congress in Athens, ACI EUROPE honoured its Ukrainian members with the Exceptional Resilience Award for their resilience through the period of Russia's full-scale aggression. This year, AAUCA returned the recognition. The relationship is not new. In 2016, Jankovec took part in AAUCA's AeroCongress in Kyiv, where he backed closer cooperation on Ukraine's path toward a Common Aviation Area with the European Union. > “Olivier Jankovec has spent years defending the place of Ukraine's airports in European aviation. His support was with us when the sky over Ukraine closed, and we feel it today, and that is why this recognition from our airports is deserved,” said Petro Lypovenko, President of AAUCA. ### A PREPARED PARTNER, NOT A RECOVERY CASE Ukraine's airports offer Europe something scarce. The experience of operating and preparing a national aviation system through sustained war, to international standards, against war risk. When the airspace reopens, that expertise, and the partners who built relationships before reopening, will be in position first. ### About AAUCA The Association “Airports of Ukraine” Civil Aviation (AAUCA) represents more than 21 member airports and has been a full member of ACI EUROPE since 2014. ### About Aviaedge Aviaedge is an independent Ukrainian aviation analytical media organisation, participant and media partner of AAUCA. Aviaedge distributes and translates this announcement and is not the author of AAUCA's position. ### Media contact Petro Lypovenko, President, AAUCA. [p.lipovenko@gmail.com](mailto:p.lipovenko@gmail.com) ### Primary sources AAUCA, official statement on the delegation's participation, 29 June 2026. ACI EUROPE, State of the Industry address, Prague, 23 June 2026. Boryspil International Airport, official statement, 25 June 2026. --- Source: https://aviaedge.com/en/airports/aauca-honorary-badge-olivier-jankovec-prague