During the debate at the National Assembly on the air communication agreement between Armenia and the United Arab Emirates, PAP lawmaker Mikayel Melkumyan asked a question of the Head of the Civil Aviation General Department, Sergey Avetisyan, about the open sky policy. In his words, “It looks like it is not so open but a little half-open. This open must produce results, the quality of services for the consumers must be improved further, pricing and so on. Arriving in Armenia and leaving for any European country lasts approximately 12-14 hours, at best. Is there any progress in the open skies policy or not?”
The Head of Civil Aviation replied that there is progress and it is a fact, “Do not think that the air ticket prices in Armenia are cheap, and there is no room to work. There is a room to work, and the tickets will be cheaper. We constantly compare with Tbilisi. There are directions that are cheaper from Tbilisi and there are directions that are cheaper from Yerevan. For European directions, maybe sometimes Armenia is not so much in a competitive position but this is conditioned by the issues of the commercial market. If there is no demand, the airline does not take the flight. It turns out that the passengers are traveling to this destination through the second town. In many cases, thru Moscow.”
Mr. Avetisyan said that compared to September last year, we have a 30 percent grow of passenger traffic. He also stated, “Certainly, there is a decline in ticket prices. We all feel it in some of the directions. As an example, which is the most demanding destinations for us is the Yerevan-Moscow, I saw that “Aeroflot” has posted the price for the next week: USD 140-150 with the return ticket. Let us assume that this is cheap.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
