Nov 30, 2010

Monopolists hamper tourism development in Armenia

Director of Avarayr incoming tour operator Arkady Sahakyan said that Armenia has a large base of tourism services in winter period, including for active and passive rest.
However, provision of these services is hampered by many factors, Sahakyan told a press conference.
According to him, the condition of Armenia’s roads leading to places of interest is deplorable during winter.
“Recently, we held negotiations with owners of hotels in Tsaghkadzor resort on decrease of prices. At the same time, Armavia national carrier does not provide any discounts. For example, Siberian Airlines offer clients a 40% discount during winter season, while we are uncompetitive due to high prices for air tickets,” he said.
According to Sahakyan, unfortunately, tourists can arrive in Armenia only by airplane, while national monopolists – Armavia company and Zvartnots Airport – pursue an unclear pricing, exploiting the situation.
“Hotels of Armenia’s resorts will be packed until January 15, but there will be no visitors from January 15 to March, as the internal market cannot afford using such expensive services. Besides, the loading level of hotels around Lake Sevan is decreasing by 30-35% from year to year, due to affordable and high-quality services in Georgia. The same situation is faced in Tsaghkadzor,” said Sahakyan.
Besides, according to the expert, tourism development is hampered by long winter vacations, as tourists, who are in Armenia from December 30 to January 8, cannot visit museums, exhibitions, theaters, etc.

Source: panarmenian.net

Nov 23, 2010

German Ambassador complains about Armavia’s high prices


At today’s press conference German Ambassador to Armenia Hans-Jochen Schmidt complained about high prices for the services of Armavia air company.
According to him, prices for tickets from Yerevan are too high. Armavia is a competitive company unlike its prices. The Ambassador stressed that it is very hard to speak of competition in Armenia’s air transportation.  It would be better to make investments to improve this field, he added. 

Source: news.am

Nov 4, 2010

First Sukhoi Superjet 100 production aircraft flies for Armavia Airline

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Today the first Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SN 95007) production aircraft intended for Armavia took to the skies. The aircraft was piloted by Sukhoi Civil Aircraft’s test pilots Alexander Ivanov and Alexander Kochetkov.

During the 3 hours flight, the pilot crew checked the overall engines, systems and equipment performance having confirmed the aircraft characteristics within operational range.

After a series of factory checks, the SSJ100 SN 95007 will fly to Moscow for operational route proving tests.
Ground handling at the airports will be performed in full compliance with the operational documentation. Route proving tests are aimed at confirmation of reliability of onboard systems in operational environment and feasibility of aircraft handling with standard airport on-ground devices.

Sukhoi Civil Aircraft: The Company’s shareholders are the Sukhoi Holding owing 75% - 1 share and the Italian Alenia Aeronautica, a Finmeccanica Company, holding 25% + 1 share since April 7, 2009.

Sukhoi Civil Aircraft was founded in 2000 to develop new regional aircraft projects. Headquartered in Moscow, the Company enjoys several production branches seated in the cities of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Novosibirsk and Voronezh. Today the company employs over 2,000 people.

Sukhoi Superjet 100 –a new family of regional jets– is the Company’s major project. The aircraft was rolled out on September 26, 2007 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. On May 19, 2008, the first Sukhoi Superjet 100 performed its maiden flight there. On October 24, 2008, after successful completion of factory flight tests, the aircraft emerged into certification flight campaign.


Source: avionews.com

Nov 3, 2010

Armavia expands the geography of flights and defines special through rates

  National air carrier of Armenia “Armavia” is expanding the  geography of its flights and defines special through rates, press-0secretary of “Armavia” Nana Avetisova informs.

“Armavia” together with the airline company “El AL” (Israel Airlines) provides opportunity to make flights to several countries of the world from Yerevan and back via international airport “Ben-Gurion” in Tel-Aviv by special through rates.

There are flights to the following destinations: Los Angeles, New-York, Toronto, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Beijing, Cairo, San Paulo and Johannesburg. Prices for the mentioned flights vary from 320 to 810 EURO excluding taxes.

“Armavia” together with “Uthair” provides opportunity of flights to some countries via international airport “Vnukovo” in Moscow and back by special through rates.

Flights will be implemented to Russian cities Krasnoyarsk, Barnaul, Volgograd, Irkutsk, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Nizhnevartovsk, Omsk, Surgut, Tomsk, Tyumen, Ufa, Perm, Astrakhan, Anapa, Belgorod, Yeysk, Magnitogorsk, Minvodi, Murmansk, Nizhnekamsk, Noyabrsk, Siktivkar, Ulyanovsk, Usinsk, Ukhta, Khanti-Mansiysk, Lugansk, Nikolayev, Lvov and Zaporozhye.

There will be flights Yerevan-Moscow (Vnukovo)-Vilnius and back, Yerevan-Moscow (Vnukovo)-Gyanja and back, Yerevan-Moscow (Vnukovo)-Baku and back, Yerevan-Moscow (Vnukovo)-Nakhijevan and back and Yerevan-Moscow (Vnukovo)-Lenkoran and back.

Prices for the above mentioned flights will vary from 320 to 596 EURO excluding taxes.

Today “Armavia” makes more than 100 flights by 35 directions to 20 countries of the world weekly. In 2009 “Armavia” transported more than 700 thousand passengers. Currently the air-park of the company consists of 9 planes (А320-3, А319-3, CRJ-200, YAK-42-VIP).

Source: arka.am

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