Armenian Airlines (JI, Yerevan) took delivery of its first aircraft, an A321-200, on December 7, 2022, although it has yet to secure its Air Operator's Certificate.
OE-ISO (msn 5382), a 10-year-old aircraft formerly operated by Asiana Airlines and owned by Air Lease Corporation, was ferried from maintenance at Ljubljana to Tbilisi. Despite sporting Armenian Airlines' livery, it remains registered in Austria and flew using a generic callsign as Armenian Airlines has yet to obtain its own code.
Armenian Airlines plans to take three A321s and operate a network of scheduled flights, targeting Russia as its main market. Its initial plan was to launch in October 2022.
The carrier is backed by businessman Ararat Sargsyan and is unrelated to former state-owned flag carrier Armenian Airlines (1991), although it uses a nearly identical logo. Sargsyan was also among the founders of Armavia, which went bankrupt; Alliance Air (Armenia), which never launched (and was linked to Russia's Nordwind Airlines); and FlyArmenia Airways, which has rebranded as Hayways following an investigation concerning its only aircraft landing at Tehran Imam Khomeini and is currently recertifying.