Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the event dedicated to the launch of the Armenian national airline Fly Arna at Yerevan’s Zvartnots Airport.
The ceremony started with the arrival of the first Airbus A320 airplane of Fly Arna from Sharjah International Airport to Armenia, bringing with it the delegation of Air Arabia Group. The airplane was welcomed at Zvartnots International Airport with a water salute.
The event was attended by Tatevik Revazyan, Chairperson of the Civil Aviation Committee, Tigran Avinyan, Chairman of the Board of the State Interest Fund of Armenia (ANIF), David Papazyan, Executive Director of ANIF, Adel Abdullah Ali , CEO of Air Arabia and other officials.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan welcomed those present and said, “Sometimes it is very difficult to regulate the mind, what to focus on. more on what we have or what we do not have? And this is a really important question, because what we have inspires us, and what we do not have, can sometimes discourage us in the sense that having so much in Armenia, at the same time we do not have so much that sometimes it seems impossible to fill the gap, accomplish the mission, accomplish the task that fits into the vast space of what we do not have.
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And in this sense, we have decided not to be afraid to face all the challenges. And we have decided that we should have more and more and to give up the logic of patching. If we are doing something, we must do everything we can to do it as properly as possible, at the highest possible level.
And our political commitment has been that during the years we are in office, significant changes must take place in the field of aviation, the colors of our state flag must appear on more and more planes. I am glad that we have this opportunity today, I congratulate all of us, because with the participation of our partners from Air Arabia from the United Arab Emirates and the Armenian National Interests Fund, we are establishing this kind of an airline.”
According to Nikol Pashinyan, this has multi-sided significance, because one of the most important achievements of the pre-Covid period was that the Government was able to create an opportunity for citizens to travel at affordable prices. “And this is not just a matter of movement, this is also a political, civilizational issue, because when as wide sections of our society as possible have the opportunity to travel, to communicate with other countries, it is an opportunity for us to get to know ourselves better, better assess ourselves, have more energy, have a better idea of what to do next,” the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister hoped that “Fly Arna” airline will bring more people to Armenia and will take more people from Armenia. “In this sense, our country will also become a crossroads, from where people go travelling, where they return, where people go for rest, acquaintance, tourism, and those people keep a part of Armenia in their hearts, they take some positive attitude towards Armenia with them. Congratulations again to all of us on doing a step forward on the path of the development of this direction. We know more negative than positive stories about Armenia’s aviation sector, it’s time to break that chain. I hope that together with our partners we will be able to overcome the weighty package of negative news or the impression left by it with positive news, new developments, new planes, new passengers, new directions,” Prime Minister Pashinyan said.
Afterwards, the Prime Minister, accompanied by the CEO of Air Arabia Adel Abdullah Ali, toured the first Fly Arna aircraft to get acquainted with the conditions created for the passengers.
During the official launch ceremony, Fly Arna announced the date of its first commercial flight. The first flight G6501 will be operated from Zvartnots International Airport to Hurghada International Airport on July 3, 2022. Fly Arna’s initial destinations will also include direct flights connecting Armenia with Sharm El Sheikh and Beirut.
INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT OF THE OFFICE OF THE PRIME-MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
