“Air Armenia” is already the 4th airline, whose activities are failed. The “Armenian Airlines” and “Armavia” were recognized bankrupt, after the aircraft crash of the Armenian International Airways belonging to the former MPs Gagik Tsarukyan and Versand Hakobyan, this company no longer operated, and now, the “Air Armenia” in on the way to declared bankrupt. The HSBC bank has opened a lawsuit at the court for recognizing the latter an involuntary bankrupt. This airline owes the Bank 2 million 150 thousand euros, while the total debt of the company amounts to 16 million dollars.
Arsen Avetisyan, the 51% shareholder of the “Air Armenia”, assured “Aravot” that he can pay off the debts and resume the work. Avetisyan hopes that since April next year, the flights of the airline will be resumed, and in the meantime, the company’s accounts are sequestrated. This year in August, the Head of Civil Aviation Artyom Movsisyan, in the conversation with the journalists, as a reason of the “Air Armenia” to withdraw the market, mentioned, “Economically, it failed to be a competitor, it did not have enough financial base. Each business has its own value.”
While, the airline Director Arsen Avetisyan, in the conversation with “Aravot”, presents other reasons; he casts the blame for the airline failure on other factors, but not the management. In particular, one of these reasons – the open sky policy – pulled down the “Air Armenia”.
In the conversation with us, Arsen Avetisyan said that the problem is whether the Government of Armenia wants to have an Armenian national air carrier or not. “I know that many state officials are willing to have it, now, if I answer this rhetorical question, then, yes, Armenia should necessarily have a national carrier, in this case, the problems are resolved. But since there is an open air, having a national carrier is a problem. The day when “Air Armenia” made its first flight, on the same day, the government announced about introducing a policy of an open sky. Should I knew that there is going to be an open sky, I would not have started, it was a “surprise” for us.
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We reminded Mr. Avetisyan that prior to official statement that the open skies project comes into effect, there were talks that such a project is underway, Avetisyan said, “How many times these announcers have met with anybody from the airlines. None. I’m an interested party, maybe my words will not sound objective. Having an open sky is not bad in itself, but if the Government of Armenia has more than 10-year open-skies agreement with the US Government and with the Netherlands since 1996, an open sky with both of them. In other words, I am in favor of signing agreements in these directions, but the lifting of the restrictions specifically in the CIS region led to the fact that we cannot have an Armenian air carrier. At that time, I was just yelling, sign open-sky agreements with whom you want and how much you want, let them come whatever country you want, but do not lift the restrictions with Russia and Ukraine.”
Avetisyan assured that the Russian and Ukrainian airline companies have price advantages over the “Air Armenia”. “Currently, the air ticket of Yerevan-Moscow-Yerevan (Russian air company) is 65 cheaper, they pay the “Rosaeronavigatsiya” by their internal rate, which is at least 2 times cheaper, they pay also less to their airports than the foreign companies, which is maximum 30% cheaper than we pay, they pay 450 dollars per ton of fuel oil, while it is 850 dollars in Armenia. After all, how can the Armenian carriers compete with those of Ukraine or Russian?”
Avetisyan said, if these companies have no limitation in our country, then the Government of Armenia should have signed agreements with the governments of Russia and Ukraine for having equal conditions for the Armenian company in their country. “If we sign an open sky agreement, then you should not say, “The airport for the Air Armenia” costs 1,000 dollars, but for them in their country – 300 dollars, I am giving conventional figures.”
Avetisyan said that the Russian and Ukrainian airlines are much less interested in the Armenian carrier’s Yerevan-Moscow or Yerevan-Kiev flights. “They become furious when the Armenian carrier begins making flights in the direction of Europe or thru Europe to the US.” According to Avetisyan, currently 90% of the market belongs to Russian and Ukrainian carriers, which take the passengers primarily to Europe and the US through Moscow and Kiev. Avetisyan said that when the “Air Armenia” began developing the European routes: Athens, Paris and Frankfurt, some competitors did not like it. “They realized that first the German market goes back to the hand of Armenians, people will begin flying to the US thru Frankfurt, and they were unable to beat us in the competitive filed and beat us in another field. I connect the statement of the “Rosaeronavigatsiya” with it. As soon as the “Rosaeronavigatsiya” announced that we owe them, the sale of our ticket fell by 50 percent, and we wrecked.”
Note that without the Russian and Ukrainian companies, a number of European airlines were conducting flights from Yerevan, and thousands of passengers were using the European airlines to travel to Europe and the USA. These European companies covered and still cover the overwhelming majority of the market. Arsen Avetisyan has 20 years of experience in civil aviation, and it is surprising that he has not considered this fact, and casts the failure over the Russian and Ukrainian companies.
It is also surprising that the “Air Armenia” hopes that starting from April it will resume its flights. Firstly, the company does not have its own aircraft, availability and non-availability of pilots is in question, currently, according to our information, there are 5-6 pilots left in Armenia who are planning to go to work abroad. And most importantly, the Head of Armenia’s development, Arman Khachaturyan, said that starting from the next year, the Polish and Czech giant airlines will return to the Armenian market. These companies have a very large-scale transit passenger transportation to the US thru Europe, in other words, the directions with which Avetisyan cherishes hope. Eventually, the government so far has no intentions to have a national carrier, and even if it decides to have one, hardly it would be the “Air Armenia”.
Nelly BABAYAN,
Aravot daily
