ArmInfo. The Emirates airline Air Arabia is going to file a claim against Armenia in an arbitration court over the national air carrier - Fly Arna airline. This is stated in the Global Arbitration Review.
49% of the shares of Fly Arna belong to the Arab International Business Company, affiliated with the Air Arabia airline, the same amount to the State Interest Fund ANIF, the dissolution of which was announced in May of this year, and 2% of the shares are the property of the Lebanese businessman of Armenian origin Varuzhan Nergizyan.
Fly Arna was created in December 2021, but 1.5 years after its creation it encountered problems.
In particular, on January 30, 2024, Fly Arna officially announced the suspension of flights, which was allegedly related to operational changes carried out by the company. "The airline is working to quickly resume services and services for its passengers," the airline said in a statement.
Earlier, ArmInfo reported about problems that had arisen at Fly Arna, caused, first of all, by the failure of the Armenian side to fulfill the conditions assumed when creating the airline. First of all, we were talking about state compensation for expenses when operating flights. The carrier stopped flights on January 10. Prior to this, one of the carrier's main shareholders, Air Arabia, recalled one of its two aircraft.
In connection with the situation, employees of the national air carrier of Armenia demanded payment of arrears of wages. The appeal received by ArmInfo stated that in a short period of its activity, Fly Arna managed to win the trust of passengers, showing high performance in a number of areas. The company became the only Armenian airline that successfully passed the operational safety audit of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and received the corresponding certificate. Over the entire period of operation of the aircraft fleet, the OTP (On Time Performance) indicator of the airline's scheduled flights was 95-98%.
However, for unknown reasons, a decision was made to terminate the airline's activities. In January, Fly Arna made its last flight, and already on March 19, airline employees received a notification that the latter was suspending its operations.
In particular, the national air carrier informed employees that the signed contracts would be terminated on May 19. At the same time, the airline agreed to pay severance pay in the amount of the average monthly salary. However, despite the above, the airline's employees' salaries for April and May, as well as severance pay, were never paid.
The employees sent letters to the management of Air Arabia, the airline that operates Fly Arna. In response letters, representatives of Air Arabia suggested contacting ANIF, since they no longer have the authority to act on behalf of the airline. In another letter, a representative of Air Arabia said that ANIF has consistently failed to find a solution and has not agreed to the proposed liquidation scheme for the company. On June 3, airline employees sent a letter to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, but the letter was forwarded to the State Property Management Committee.
