Armenia is not ready to assign the status of a flag carrier to any of the airlines active in the country yet, head of the General Department of Civil Aviation of Armenia Tatevik Revazian told journalists.
As quoted by the ARKA News Agency, Revazian pointed out that the privately-owned carriers are still not developed enough to justify the state's decision to grant them special status. She underlined that the previous Armenian flag carrier, Armavia (Yerevan), went bankrupt in 2013 leaving a trail of debts and tarnishing the country's reputation. As such, the government is now careful before lending support to a new airline.
According to the ch-aviation PRO airlines module, there are currently three scheduled carriers in Armenia. Two of them operate own flights, namely Georgian Airways subsidiary Armenia Aircompany (Yerevan) and Armenia Airways (6A, Yerevan), which recently launched its first route to Tehran Imam Khomeini. The third airline, Atlantis European Airways (Yerevan), does not operate own services but sells tickets for the Austrian Airlines service from Vienna under its own code.
Revazian said that any of the active scheduled carriers could potentially reach the status of a flag carrier once they grow their business.
Earlier this year, both Armenian MPs and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan underlined the need for the country to have its own flag carrier, although at the same time they urged caution. Since the collapse of Armavia in 2013 and Air Armenia (Yerevan) a year later, the successive Armenian governments preferred to follow an open sky policy and lure foreign carriers to the country.
