Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The devaluation of Azerbaijan’s manat, widely expected by economists and even frequently hinted by the CBA, could exacerbate prices in the country.

Consumers believe the sharp devaluation will hit not only food sector, but also service sector. On the eve of the New Year, many people are afraid that devaluation will impact their travel costs, as well.

Oil producer Azerbaijan has followed its neighboring countries and switched to the free-floating rate of the national currency – manat – on December 21. The exchange rate between manat and US dollar changed from 1.0499 to 1.5500 after the policy shift. The official exchange rate of euro to Azerbaijani manat was set at 1.6850 manats.

Azerbaijan Airlines announced that the company will consider the possibility of reducing prices for flights departing from the national airports.

An extraordinary meeting of the Board of Azerbaijan Airlines was held in Baku on December 23.AZAL’s President Jahangir Askarov instructed the Board to consider within 30 days the optimization of prices for flights to cities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Mineralniye Vodi, Istanbul, Ankara, Antalia, Tel Aviv, Tehran, Dubai, Aktau, Kiyev, Lvov, Minsk, Tbilisi and etc.

The relevant decision will be made public soon.

A day before, AZAL said that the company will not change the cost of tickets in foreign currency.

“Since 2006, according to the regulations of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), pricing of air carriers, operating international flights from Azerbaijan, and all settlements are carried out in the single European currency - euro.

“Thus, the cost of tickets to the euro-equivalent is unchanged, but due to the fact that all calculations must be made in the national currency in Azerbaijan, the cost of tickets by the IATA is published by Central Bank’s official rate manat against the euro on the day of payment,” AZAL reported.

Azerbaijan Airlines is a major air carrier and one of the leaders of the aviation community of the CIS countries, with the newest airplane fleets, consisting of 25 airplanes. The airline flies to 40 destinations in 19 countries and transported more than 1.8 million passengers in 2014.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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