Small but firm steps in the air – “Armenia” has established ties with five countries of the world

“Armenia” airline is preparing to solemnly meet its 25,000th passenger and is negotiating to open new destinations.

Armenian apricot, lavash, amazing atmosphere and great people. This is why the Israeli director Erez Dan especially loved Armenia. It’s his second visit in our country. Five years ago he had to travel to Armenia in a transit flight, but this time he traveled in comfort directly by Tel Aviv-Yerevan flight on the liner of Armenia airlines.

We met Dan at the festive event of the airline: Armenia celebrated three years since the launch of the first flight on June 12 this year. The company itself was founded in 2015.

Armenia and Georgian Airways are launching Batumi-Yerevan-Batumi flights.

“The flight was comfortable, everything was great and most importantly – quick. I especially enjoyed the food that was served during the flight,” Dan said in an interview with the journalists.

He admitted that during his second visit in Armenia he noticed big changes in the country. Dan is sure that Armenia will become a real holiday destination for the Israeli, since everything here sets up a positive attitude: the people, the atmosphere, very tasty and inexpensive food. And most importantly – now there is a direct air communication.

Weisberg on Armenia's transit flights: there’ll be big demand for flights through Yerevan.

Director General of Armenia Airlines Robert Hovhannisyan and Deputy Director for External Relations Karine Karapetyan at the three-year anniversary of the airline

"I especially like your delicious lavash and apricots. Apricots are great!" – says Dan.

He is sure that thanks to direct flights, Israelis will more often go to Armenia rich in history and sights.

Life from scratch

The airline has played a key role in Hripsime Hovhannisyan’s life. Recently she worked as an interpreter and now she got a job of a flight attendant at the airline. And immediately fell in love with her new profession.

"I started from scratch. I passed casting, had courses, I learnt everything that was required- I got into all the details of my new profession," Hripsime told the reporters.

She admitted that if the local airline had not appeared in Armenia, she would still continue doing translations. But now she is especially pleased with her new and responsible work.

Started with one flight per week

Director General of “Armenia” Airlines Robert Oganesyan positively assesses the work done over the years of the enterprise’s existence. He is confident that in three years the airline has successfully completed all its tasks.

"We were able to return four commanders to their homeland, retrained five crews (commander and co-pilot), prepared 30 flight attendants from scratch," Hovhannisyan told the audience at the event.

He remembered how in 2016 the airline began its work with only one flight per week. Liners flew on the route Yerevan-Min-Vody-Yerevan. Now there are up to 22 flights a week. And this is despite the fact that the company has a relatively small team of 58 people.

The secret of success

The Deputy Director for External Relations Karine Karapetyan in her turn told the reporters that the secret of the airline’s success is to move forward in small but firm steps.

"At the moment we are negotiating with the airports of Ufa, Kazan, Rostov and intend to arrange flights to these Russian cities," said Karapetyan.

According to her, especially in Rostov they are interested in cooperation with the Armenian airline. At the same time, the tariff policy will not be revised in the near future – the airline is doing everything to offer affordable tickets to passengers.

"One of the reasons why the ticket prices can rise is the fees for air navigation services at Russian airports. But our government is already negotiating with Russian partners to create equal conditions for all the airlines,"- Karapetyan said.

In addition, today the airline is in the list of major taxpayers in Armenia. In three years it has transferred 1.5 billion drams (3 million 125 thousand dollars) to the state treasury.

Karapetyan stressed that this year the number of passengers has increased for 30% compared to 2018. In the near future even more passenger traffic is expected in Armenia due to the opening of regular flights to Moscow.

Currently, the airline’s fleet consists of two aircrafts and nine more, leased under the ACMI program. Besides Moscow, Armenia’s liners operate regular flights from Yerevan to Tbilisi, Voronezh, Min-Vody, Tel Aviv, Lyon and Beirut.

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