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Arabian "slap" on Armenia's airline market

7 May 2015 17:01 (UTC+04:00)
Arabian "slap" on Armenia's airline market

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

Arabian air carrier stopped its activity in Armenia and this turned to be another hit on the already suffering Armenian airline market.

The national air carrier of the United Arab Emirates, Etihad announced about its withdrawal from Armenia linking it with the "review over flights schedule".

However local experts and media emerged doubtful to accept that the reported schedule review stood the key reason behind the closure of Etihad services in Armenia.

Zhamanak newspaper in Yerevan has claimed that it is Armenia's links with the Eurasian Economic Unions- a Russia-led trade bloc, which discouraged the UAE Company to turn to pullout.

"It is the continued result of Yerevan's policy to give all to Russia. Russia tries to do everything so that foreign companies wishing to enter Armenia's market would have to do so through Moscow's approval or leave the country completely," Shagen Petrosyan, former head of Armenia's General Department of Civil Aviation told the newspaper.

Seeking to explain Etihad's withdrawal, Petrosyan also supposed that the lack of essential revenues could have been a determining factor as well.

Nearly 20 different companies from Russia now control half of Armenia’s air travel market. Ten percent is held by the Russian state-owned carrier Aeroflot and its three subsidiaries. Russian airlines run solely eight Moscow-Yerevan flights a day.

Armenia's airline market suffocates in financial troubles. Last December, following the national carrier Air Armenia's bankruptcy announcement many customers sought refunds on tickets they had bought, and sales fell by 80 percent. At the same time, the airline’s creditors annulled an agreed repayment schedule and began demanding their money back.

The Armenian government is still defending its open skies policy which according to experts has undermined the airline market, particularly local companies that fail to compete with their richer foreign rivals.

Online data portal Index Mundi informs based on the International Civil Aviation Organization data that the value for air transport, both domestic and international aircraft passengers of air carriers registered in Armenia is 392,312 as of 2011. Comparing with 2010 figure of 704,753, the data shows nearly a half lost in passenger volume over a year in Armenia.

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Follow Mushvig Mehdiyev on Twitter: @Mushviggo

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