Head of "Executive Travel": Armenian companies have left airline market of Armenia because of open skies policy

ArmInfo. Armenian companies  have left airline market of Armenia because of open skies policy,  Head of "Executive Travel", General sales agent of "Air France KLM"  Levon Baghdasaryan told ArmInfo's correspondent. 

According to him the main goal of the open skies policy was to remove  all restrictions regarding frequency of flights and destinations as  well as airline companies wishing to carry out flights to Armenia. In  a way the policy gave impetus to development of tourism and economy  of the country. Unfortunately, according to Baghdasaryan, the  Armenian airline companies were not ready for such competition. As a  result they had to leave the market, the expert stated. 

The expert said that he was against the introduction of open skies  policy. However, the authorities were expecting that the policy will  lead to opening of new jobs, and growth of the field's share in GDP,  "Possibly, more time is needed to realize whether the country needed  this policy", the head of Executive Travel stated. 

To recall, the national air carrier of Armenia - Armavia -suspended  its flights on 1 April 2013 and launched the bankruptcy procedure  because of unfair competition and pressure from Russian airline  companies. In 2014 the same happened to Air Armenia. On October 23,  2013, the Armenian government approved the programme implying  provision of competitive and long- term air transportation services  in the country. The program is based on a joint study of McKinsey &  Company and National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia. According  to the program Open Skies policy would have positive impact on  opening of job places, growth of passenger transportation and  reduction of tariffs.  Particularly, it was anticipated that the Open  Skies policy would reduce the prices of flights to Armenia by 10% on  the average, would lead to opening of 18.000-23.000 new jobs, growth  of passenger turnover by 20- 25%. According to the plan thiswould  allow the country to additionally increase the GDP by 1.5% or   $0.3-0.4 bln AMD per annum.