It’s necessary to work on increasing geography of flights and attracting budget airlines – Armenian PM

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 7, ARMENPRESS. Consultation was held in the Armenian government led by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan during which the PM was reported on the implementation of 2017 priority issues and results of action plan of the General Department of Civil Aviation, as well as the activities for 2018, the government told Armenpress.

Head of the General Department of Civil Aviation Sergey Avetisyan reported that all priority plans and actions set for the last year have been implemented. The Free Route Airspace concept has been introduced in Armenia on December 7, 2017. According to the document, the airlines will have an opportunity to enter Armenia’s aviation space starting from each defined point and operate the flight on freely selected route, which according to Avetisyan, can cut the flight operation expenses by significantly decreasing the cost of the fuel.

The process of providing permit to local and foreign airlines to carry out air communications has been simplified and upgraded: the list of documents required previously and the permit deadlines were cut, as well as one window principle was installed. The Department has initiated online system for submitting applications aimed at improving the business environment and simplifying the procedures. The Zvartnots airport offers new flexible tariff discount policy to new airlines.

“We need to understand what are our weak sides and what we need to improve in order to further increase the passenger flow. The number one issue we need to make efforts on is the increase of geography of flights. Secondly, we need to assess the steps so that to be able to attract budget airlines. When we understand our problematic sides from macro perspective and work on them, we will contribute to increasing the geography of flights and making them more successful”, the PM said.

He also considered a necessity the development of small aviation and in particular attached importance to the launch of flight to Meghri taking into account the existence of the Free Economic Zone. “We should have a small aviation development program with several points and directions”, he said.

Sergey Avetisyan reported that research has been conducted in connection with the small aviation aimed at assessing the conditions of targeted airports and making concrete calculations. Moreover, the Department works with private partners aimed at expanding the possible cooperation.

The PM also attached importance to the steps aimed at developing Yerevan as a transit direction by different international airlines and gave concrete instructions. He also tasked to define the 2018 actions and targets aimed at expanding the flights, increasing the passenger flows, attracting budget airlines and developing small aviation.