Air Arabia plans to sue Armenia at Arbitration

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.