Wednesday, December 7 2016 14:12

ArmInfo. Negotitations on  Armenia's Joining the Common Air Area Agreement won't last  long,  Garegin Melkonyan, the Deouty Economy Minister expressed  his opinion  during his  conversation with journalists in Yerevan on December 7. 

According Melkonyan, Armenia passed a long way to the  appropriate  mandate of European Commission to start negotiations on Armenia's  joining to common European sky. The terms of joining have been  postponed several times. In December 2015 in Brussels, during the  meeting between Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and EU  High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica  Mogherini, Armenian Foreign Minister stated that Armenia is ready to  sign the Common Aviation Agreement with Europe. It was mentioned,  that in December EU will issue a mandate to sign such an Agereement,  and in January 2016 the negotiation process will be launched. During  recent months Yerevan has many times stated the interest in the  soonest conclusion of the Agreement mentioned. And only recently, the  EU Council on transport, telecommunications and energy approved the  mandeate to start the negotiations on signing the integral Agreement  on air transport with Armenia. 

Garegin Melkonyan reminded that at the end of 2o13 Armenia announced  joining the "Open sky" concept.  But that Agreement could not be  operated fully, because there was a need to set similar regimes with  partner countries. The Agreement will provide the fifth level of  aviation freedom, i.e. beside securing the flight safety and  certification procedures, the document sets forth the cancellation of  limitations in respect to foreign (European)  carriers  flights to  Armenia and vice versa. This will improve the conditions to attract  European air companies, particularly - those of budget-based. The  liberalization will also secure the fair competition at the  international level through the combination of state support and  standards regulation.  That means the integration in European  aviation market, support to Armenian business to enter the  international market, turning Armenia into important transit country  All this will promote the flight tickets price decrease and more  options for passengers.