YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. The Cabinet today amended the Law On State Duty, exempting airlines from the so-called Air Duty in the event of launching flights to new destinations from Armenia. The Air Duty is a fixed 10,000 dram tax on passengers which is included in airline tickets in Armenia.

Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Suren Papikyan said that the exemption will be effective for airlines that will launch flights to destinations which haven’t been operated from Armenia in the past 12 months.

“At this moment 11-12 billion drams in revenue is entering the budget in the form of air duty. But we have all grounds that in the event of providing this exemption we will have a positive effect, taking into account that this regulation will contribute to the development of new markets and encouragement of existing markets. According to the assessment, thanks to the multiplicative effect the state budget will be supplemented with additional revenues, which wouldn’t be exceeded in the event of not initiating this regulation. This relates to all airlines,” he said, adding that the new law will enable a competitive environment.

In turn, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that a political decision has been made that the government will remove the air duty in the event of a new destination being opened which hasn’t been operated in the past 12 months.

“As a result of this decision at this moment we have one airline which has decided to carry out flights to Yerevan and Gyumri. There were rumors that RyanAir was given privileges. Actually, the privilege relates to everyone, we are inviting all airlines to come and use these conditions. This will impact the price formation of tickets and generally economic activity development,” the PM said.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan