NIBULON managed to revive the fashion for transportation by water. Such a popular water transport in Europe became a favourite mode of transport among Ukrainian passengers. More than 24,000 persons have enjoyed trips by the high-speed hydrofoils, in particular children, ATO participants, public activists, volunteers, human rights activists and others. They were among passengers during charitable trips along the Dnipro River in Kyiv, Kaniv, Kremenchuk, Cherkasy and other cities of Ukraine.
Families came to perform passenger trips by NIBULON Express vessels – several generations of Ukrainians: those who still remember when water passenger transportation was regular, and those for whom it was a dream from childhood that finally came true thanks to NIBULON. 
This spring NIBULON Express hydrofoils will operate on Ukrainian rivers again! NIBULON’s shipping company is preparing to the 2018 navigation season.  The company’s passenger fleet, which consists of four hydrofoils (two vessels of Voskhod type (77 passengers) and two vessels of Polissia type (53 passengers), is undergoing scheduled repairs at NIBULON shipbuilding and repair yard and at contracting organizations in Mykolaiv and Kyiv. Two purchased vessels are being modernized; the specialists are installing multimedia equipment, surveillance and notification equipment, etc. on them.
“The strategy of scheduled passenger transportation in 2018 will be based on the results of work and the experience gained during last year’s navigation”, said the specialists of NIBULON’s department of passenger transportation.
New routes in view of the technical characteristics of the vessels are being considered. We know how disappointed those people who really waited for these trips were. Unfortunately, our passenger vessel was unable to enter Ochakiv port (it is subordinated to Ukrainian Sea Port Authority SE) due to lack of certified and properly equipped berth.
However, this season we plan to launch trips by the route Ochakiv – the Kinburn Spit. The berth location is a subject to approval of Ochakiv mayor Serhii Bychkov. We will not depend on USPA regarding the mooring of passenger vessels any more. At the same time, the company’s specialists are preparing documents and buying a floating berth of 100 m in Skadovsk.
A new floating berth will also be installed in Mykolaiv. In connection with this, a new place for embarkation and disembarkation of passengers on Kabotazhnyi Spusk, near NIBULON shipbuilding and repair yard, is a subject to approval of the acting head of Mykolaiv city council Tetiana Kazakova. 
Due to the fact that last year many people asked us to resume passenger transportation to Odesa, Zaliznyi Port and Skadovsk, the issue of purchasing vessels of catamaran type is also considered in order to transfer passengers between the towns along the Black Sea.
After that we will be capable of expanding the routes of passenger transportation in the upper part of the Dnipro River (Dnipro, Kremenchuk, Zaporizhzhia, Cherkasy, Kyiv and others).
NIBULON’s shipping company has one more pleasant innovation. It is planned to create a system for selling tickets online in a new season.
We didn’t even expect such a boom among Ukrainians who were so enthusiastic about our idea to revive passenger navigation. In this short period of time, we have received positive feedback and appeals to launch passenger routes in their settlements. Our company has plans to construct its own new hydrofoils and small passenger vessels in order to develop transportation between the settlements on the Dnipro River, as well as between big Ukrainian cities on the Black Sea. To this end, the company is carrying out a large-scale reconstruction of NIBULON shipbuilding and repair yard in order to place two production lines on its site – for passenger and specialized fleets, as well as for merchant ships. And we will do this!