General Department of Civil Aviation confirms: "Pobeda" will not carry out flights to Yerevan due to overpriced fees in Zvartnots airport

ArmInfo. "Pobeda" low-cost airline company has changed its mind on launching flights to Yerevan due to overpriced fees in Zvartnots airport. "We decided to refuse from carrying out flights to Yerevan because of extra high fees of airport servicing. The fee for service in Zvartnots airport totals 50EUR for one person, more than our tariff", the TASS informs citing its source in the company. Meanwhile, the agency's interlocutor stated that airport service in foreign routes of Pobeda totals 10 EUR in average for one person, while in some airports there is no fee at  all.

On October 21 the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) gave a permit to Pobeda low-cost carrier (member of Aeroflot Group) to make flights from Moscow to Gyumri, the second largest city of Armenia. The permit was given for making flights 7 times a week. The ticket prices will start from 10 thousand drams.  Besides, Head of GDCA Sergey Avetisyan has stated recently that the low-coster has applied for making flights also on Minvodi-Yerevan-Minvodi, Voronezh-Yerevan-Voronezh.

Meanwhile, there is even no information about the company's intentions to launch flights to Armenia on the official website of Pobeda. The airline company informs only about the launch of sales on tickets on new international routes to Azerbaijan (Baku) and Georgia (Tbilisi). ArmInfo's all the attempts to receive any information in the press-service of the company have failed.

To recall, no flights have been conducted from Shiak airport in Gyumri for a long period of time. The only flight Gyumri-Moscow was suspended in the beginning of this year. To note, "Shirak" airport is part of  "Armenia" International Airports" CJS, established by the famous Argentinean businessman of Armenian descent Eduardo Eurnekian. The airport "Shirak" of Gyumri can be considered the second international alternate airport of Armenia.

Meanwhile, on October 20, while presenting the government program for the next three years, Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan stated in Parliament that the Armenian government intends to re-launch the airport in Gyumri, the second largest city of Armenia. According to him the government will hold negotiations with a number of low- cost companies for this purpose.

The experts keep criticizing Zvartnots airport for its price policy. The airport headship refutes these accusations. A lot of international airline companies have closed their offices in Armenia in recent three years, such giants of aviation as Czech Airlines and Etihad Airways among them. Instead the number of companies from Russia and CIS countries has grown.