ArmInfo. Taron Avia air company, previously implemented cargo flights and passenger maintaining charter flights outside Armenia, is not afraid of competition with Russian air lines, taing a decision to start from April 25 the implementation of regular flights from Gyumri to Krasnodar, Rostov-On-Don and Samara. And starting from June the Company plans also to deal with Gyumri-Sopchi and Gyumri-Moscow flights.
According to Garnik Papikyan, the Director General of the Company, all the air fleet of te air carrier, which will comprise three Boeing-737-500, will be based at Shirak airport of Gyumri. For the first period only one craft, named after Armenian actor Mher Mkrtchyan, will be operated. Currently the plane is under technical maintenance in Jordan. The flights will be implemented twice a week . The flight tickets from Gyumri to Krasnodar will cost EUR 75, and the back flight will cost UER 60 with up to 25 +7 kg free of charge cargo service. The flights to Rostov and Samara are planned once in a week , but the tariff rates for those are not set yet. At the same time, as Papikyan stated, the price policy of the company is quite competitive.
Within few days the Company will open the electronic sales of tickets , and first time in Armenian air flights history the route check will be arranged in Armenian also. To remind, in order to develop the Shirak airport in Gyumri, the Armenian government took a number of steps. In particular, from December 31, 2014 the airport was released from payment of the so-called "air tax". Since January 1, 2017, the tariff for air navigation services has been reduced by 50%, and airline air services for airlines are free of charge. November 21, 2016 low-cost Russian airline Pobeda (loukoster of Aeproflot) opened ticket sales for new international flights from Moscow's Vnukovo airport to the second largest city of Armenia Gyumri. To recall, from the airport "Shirak" for a long time, there were no flights at all. The implementation of the only Gyumri-Moscow flight in 2015 from the beginning of 2016 was suspended. Airport "Shirak" is a part of the "International Airports of Armenia" CJSC, established by the well-known Argentine businessman of Armenian origin Eduardo Eurnekyan. The airport was built in 1961 and is an international airport that serves the second largest city in Armenia - the city of Gyumri (located 5 km from Gyumri) in the Shirak region. In February 2017, it was announced that the company managing Shirak for the purpose of improving the airport infrastructure intends to realize a $ 10 million investment project, $ 3 million of which will be invested this year.