ArmInfo. Taron-Avia Airlines made a decision to cease operations, the press service of the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia reports.
According to the source, earlier, based on the results of inspections and recorded omissions in Taron-Avia LLC, the company's certificate for the right to operate aircraft was temporarily suspended. The company was given a period of 6 months to eliminate the shortcomings. "However, the company decided to cease operations. With this in mind, the company's certificate number 049 for the right to operate aircraft was terminated," the statement said.
Earlier in the media there was information that the "Taron-Avia" airline has not operated for a long time and in the near future may finally leave the local aviation market. According to publications, the airline for many years has asked about the privileges that the government granted the Irish Ryanair low-cost airline to remove the duty, or the so-called "air tax" in the amount of 10 thousand drams. Meanwhile, as Levon Karamyan, commercial director of the company lamented, now, in order to ensure the entry of the foreign airline company into the Armenian market, the authorities agree to this and say that these conditions allegedly apply to all airlines.
Meanwhile, the airline does not operate flights from Yerevan starting January 15, 2018 (the first flight from the capital's Zvartnots airport was operated on November 17, 2017 in the direction of Moscow Vnukovo Airport), and from Gyumri - from December 31, 2017. Earlier - in April 2017, ArmInfo reported that Taron Avia will operate flights to Gyumri. The airline carried out regular flights on the routes Gyumri-Krasnodar- Gyumri, Gyumri-Samara-Gyumri and Gyumri-Moscow (Demodedovo Airport) - Gyumri.
However, not everything was loud and clear- the local airline had to compete with the Russian "Victory" low-cost airline, which, if it had previously operated three flights a week in the direction of Gyumri- Moscow, then made flights daily, significantly reducing airfare. Different weight categories did their job and Taron-Avia "stayed in the ring" for only a year and a half.
The Armenian Regulator on all kinds of sites ruled out the possibility of dumping by the Russian Aeroflot and its 100% daughter, "Victory". As Anna Chobanyan - Head of Air Transportation Regulation Department at the General Department of Civil Aviation told ArmInfo at the end of 2016, the currently operating two local airlines, "Armenia" and "Taron Avia", entered the passenger transportation market in 2015, that is, already in conditions of "open skies", aware of this. As Chobanyan explained, this means that they have the corresponding potential for confronting competitors, as the Armenian government chose a policy of non-compliance with local carriers and "zero" restrictions for foreign airlines, which is stipulated by the so-called "open skies" policy.
"Not a single airline, whether local, Russian or European, provides for state support under the open skies policy," the specialist said at the time, adding the very dubious thesis that supposedly "the state does not provide assistance even in European countries of this kind, since there is also a liberal regime for all airlines, "the representative of civil aviation assured. It should be noted that before entering the passenger transportation market in 2015, Taron Avia, registered in 2007 in the name of RA citizen Garnik Papikyan, was exclusively engaged in air cargo transportation.