Already former employees of the air company think so
While analyzing the reasons for the “collapse” of the air company Armavia, a set of experts in the field of aviation, expressed an idea that the owner of the company, Mikhail Baghdasarov, and his careless attitude and incorrect marketing were mostly to blame for all that. According to people familiar with the field, before the majority of Armavia’s shares passed on to Baghdasarov, this company had prospered, and even after the bankruptcy of the Armenian Airlines and society’s disappointment, Armavia won trust. In 1996, when Armavia whose shareholders included also Mikhail Baghdasarov was established, the name of the company was known to few people. According to our interlocutors, it became famous when the second largest Russian air company, Siberia, gained 70% of Armavia’s shares in 2011. That air company also took over all the air routes of the Armenian Airlines that was already bankrupt. One can say that Siberia started to work in Armenia from scratch; firstly, it imported the Airbus 320 aircraft not operated in our country before that, then they put the brand Armavia into circulation, for which purpose they invited The Bank, an international company. After examining the market, The Bank created the apricot logo so dear to Armenians and Armavia’s symbol with the image of Mount Ararat. Besides, today many people will remember the anthem of the company played in Armavia’s commercial, which is also Siberia’s contribution. According to our interlocutors, all that was the first steps, which the Russian company made, so that the airplanes with these Armenian symbols become trustworthy and reliable to Armenians living in different corners of the world. One of the correct marketing moves of the then director of Siberia, Andrei Nikitin, was the training of specialists abroad. We didn’t have any educational institution in Armenia to train specialists in aviation, therefore a set of pilots and mechanics were trained abroad, furthermore, there were neither pilots nor other employees in Armenia who were experienced in operating Airbuses. Regularly launching new air routes for Armavia was one of the achievements of Siberia. As people familiar with the history of Armavia said during a conversation with Aravot, in the most flourishing period of Armavia, in 2005, Siberia decided to leave Armenia,
handing over all shares, rights, and obligations to Armavia. So Mikhail Baghdasarov acquired also the shares belonging to Siberia. And on that day, the decline of the company started, despite the fact that it was not obvious at first. People who worked at Armavia for many years and contributed greatly to the building up of the company, say with pain today that the work they did with so much devotion has been in vain. Already former employees of Armavia told us that Baghdasarov knew very little about aviation, in the first place, otherwise, he wouldn’t have acquired unprofitable air routes. According to the employees, “He would launch air routes, then close them, he wouldn’t take into account how profitable a flight to the given country was or whether there was an Armenian community there or whether that community was big, whether there was an Armenian embassy. For example, he launched the Yerevan-Tel Aviv air route: to begin with, there is no Armenian embassy there, the Armenians who wanted to go to Tel Aviv would go through Tbilisi, because firstly, the tickets were cheaper than those of Armavia, secondly the embassy is in Tbilisi. Therefore, it was more profitable to leave for Israel from Georgia. Then he operated the Yerevan-Warsaw-Yerevan route for a short period of time, then he sold it to Lot, a Polish company, the same thing happened to the Yerevan-Rome-Yerevan air route or he launched the Yerevan-Zurich route, which made losses, or he launched the Yerevan-Birmingham route. Who needed that? It is a small English town, where even 100 Armenians would not go annually or no Englishman would come from there. We don’t even know what such work should be called? Even a person unfamiliar with aviation will understand which air routes are profitable for Armenia, if he is quick on the uptake.” According to former employees, the owner of Armavia, importing Boeing and CRJ aircrafts, made a serious mistake again. “Although he leased them, they are mortgaged in banks, but he was compelled to bring new specialists to operate the aircrafts, and if he had imported Airbuses again, he would have been able to operate them with the existing employees. So many good pilots and mechanics left Armenia.” Today Armavia owes millions of dollars; the Armenian company owes around $30 million to Rosaeronavigation alone. According to some specialists, if Armavia is not able to pay off its debts, the Armenian government will have to do that. In response to Aravot’s question whether the Armenian government had guaranteed that it would pay off the debt to Rosaeronavigation, in particular, if Armavia was insolvent, the representatives of the General Department of Civil Aviation adjunct to the government of the Republic of Armenia said that the government was not under any obligation with regard to any debt of the air company Armavia. We also inquired of the Civil Aviation Department whether the government had planned to carry out an audit in Armavia, in response to which we were informed: “Not yet.” So it turns out that the government doesn’t have any wish to find out what the reason for Armavia’s bankruptcy is, particularly given the fact that the head of the Civil Aviation General Department said on one occasion that the prices for Zvartnots’s services were not high at all. Basically, Armavia will follow in the Armenian Airlines’ footsteps, when hundreds of employees, including pilots, didn’t get salaries for years of work. According to the bankruptcy procedure, it is intended that the property of Armavia – the mortgaged aircrafts and 1-2 offices – will be sold to first of all pay off the money owed to
banks, and the $5.5 million debt to Zvartnots will hardly be pending; the pilots and a group of other employees will suffer from this whole story. Armavia must pay the pilots salaries for months of work, which also reach millions.
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NELLY BABAYAN
