ArmInfo.I believe that regular flights at Kapan airport will be launched this year. A similar opinion was expressed by Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Gnel Sanosyan. He noted that it is not possible to move the airport, which is located near the border with Azerbaijan, to another part of the city due to the complexity of the terrain in this area, the lack of suitable territory.
Therefore, according to the minister, the situation should be resolved, using other mechanisms. "Recently, we have tried to organize the departure and landing of an aircraft according to new schemes, over the territory of Armenia, without crossing the border, and our pilots succeeded. And now we are working on the development of these schemes. This, I believe, will be followed by the launch of regular flights," he said.
According to Sanosyan, at the moment, there is a stage of making professional decisions, rather than political and transport ones, which may entail a series of technical flights to resolve existing issues. It should be reminded that in April of this year, the civil aircraft L-410 made a test flight from the Kapan Syunik airport in the direction of Yerevan.
It should be noted that at the end of 2021, in an interview with an ArmInfo correspondent, head of the Airport Certification and Air Traffic Management Department of the Civil Aviation Committee of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures of the Republic of Armenia David Sarukhanyan said that Kapan's "Syunik" airport is completely ready for flights.
<All the necessary work has been done. And in November last year, the Civil Aviation Committee certified the airport in accordance with international standards>, he said. Sarukhanyan also said that at this stage it was decided to carry out domestic flights in the direction of Yerevan-Kapan-Yerevan by a 19-seat Czech- made aircraft (L-410 UVP-E20).
When asked whether the use of larger aircraft is expected with an increase in demand for this flight, the head of the CAC department noted that it would be quite difficult, given the terrain of the area and the proximity to the border. In this context, he said that the airport has 2 parking lots for airplanes and 1 for a helicopter.
As a reminder, on November 11, 2021 the Armenian government decided to allocate 49.5 million drams for general operating expenses, taxes, wages of the Kapan;s "Syunik" airport. The launch of domestic flights in the Yerevan-Kapan-Yerevan direction was announced back in March 2018.
