It has been a long time since there is no direct flight to the Armenian-populated Russian cities of Rostov, Krasnodar and Minvodi. The reason is that “Aeroflot” airline has canceled these flights with no specific dates. These days, there are hundreds of citizens who want to travel to these destinations and are deprived of the chance to take the flights by the airplane. Flying in transit, such as Moscow, is triple expensive. If before this, the direct flight was from 55 thousand to 70-75 thousand drams, depending on the season and having a passenger load or not, then now, the directions to Minvodi, Krasnodar and Rostov are from 155 thousand to 184 thousand drams.
In an interview with us, the heads of several companies selling air tickets noted that there are people almost every day who want to travel in these directions but the airline does not restore the flights. The booking office staff did not have a clear answer why the “Aeroflot” has canceled the flights. They have doubts that the reason is the lack of demand, in other words, fewer people are traveling by this route as the majority of passengers prefer to travel on land. The bus-ticket in these directions costs 18 thousand drams. True, the cost compared with the flight tickets is about three times less but it is not correct to generally deprive the passengers of the direct air flight. Transit is an alternative but at the cost to pay three times higher.
As mentioned by the heads of organizations dealing with air-tickets, the “Aeroflot” must restore the flight at least once or twice a week, as there are people who are unable to spend a whole day on traveling by bus. To the question of Aravot.am as to when the flights to Rostov, Minvodi and Krasnodar will be restored, the “Aeroflot” airlines said that they cannot tell. They could not even say a distant date and said that it was canceled indefinitely. To our question of whether the reason is the lack of passengers, the airline said that they cannot tell, it is the decision of the Home Office. If the issue of the flights to Russia where Armenia has one of the largest communities in the world (more than 2 million) is so unstable, then the efforts of the Government of Armenia to open sky and maintain these air routes in the event of air carriers of further countries is hopeless.
Lusine BUDAGHYAN
