The no stress Kiev Borispol Airport Guide

Well, perhaps not possible; there are far worse airport experiences. Atlanta springs readily to mind.

Everyone needs to fill in a landing/immigration card. Most airlines give those to passengers on board to fill in (Ok, a sample of Lot, Austrian and KLM) except for BA.

1) Ensure your card is filled in before landing. I will upload a better image of one for you to print off ASAP. Don’t worry about the paper, the ones at Borispol are normally badly photocopied versions. Note there are no pens in the immigration area and the staff don’t care and won’t help. If you want to make a quick buck take a stack…. Fill in the whole form even if it stretches the truth a bit; see attachment for example.

Borispol has only 2 land docks; where the plane can dock to the terminal via a walkway.

2a) Sit near the front of the plane. If it docks at the land lock you will be amongst the first into immigration with card completed. Looking out the windows will help to know where the plane stopped…

2b) If the plane stops elsewhere it’s onto the bus. Now of course you want to be by the doors nearest the terminal when it unloads. The buses always stop with the doors on the right by the terminal entrance when the bus is facing forward. So ensure you are either first on the bus or last depending whi doors are open.

So you’re amongst the first into immigration. This is where luck plays a big part. Is yours the only plane or did those Germans get there first as always? Worst case is 4 flights have just landed. That’s life ! The immigration hall will have multiple queues which are not equal for sure. On the right are the Ukrainian national desks. On the left is the airline staff desk. Don’t dare go there unless invited. So that leaves about 3 or 4 desks in the middle.

3) Each desk has two windows for processing but only one queue. Now not all windows are manned, so even though the queues are roughly the same length you must get one with both windows staffed.

I would assume the Ukrainian windows would accept any nationality when the ukrainians are gone but that may be hoping for too much. Ditto the staff queue. The nice man or woman (in short skirt if in luck) at immigration will not care too much about the landing code, so make sure to write it in the Latin alphabet to ensure no questions.

Now if you’ve been clever and travelled with only hand luggage escape whilst you can.