Zvartnots serves Armavia flights – airport spokesman

Zvartnots airport is providing proper services to Armavia air company today, Oct 22, the airport’s spokesman said.
As Gevorg Abrahamyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, debt calculations are currently being made, with the answers to all the questions to be specified tomorrow.
Armavia, in turn, noted that it is paying its debts to the airport on daily basis.
Earlier, Armavia conditioned the suspension of Zvartnots airport’s services to the air company by the airport’s disapproval of the new shareholder.
Meanwhile, Zvartnots noted the national carrier’s debts as the main reason behind the airport’s decision to halt servicing of the air company flights. The amount of Armavia’s debt exceeded the sum agreed on for over $1 million, bringing the total debt to $3,360 million.
As Armenian media outlets reported earlier, either owner of Zvartnots airport, Argentinean Armenian entrepreneur Eduardo Eurnekian, or Armenian president’s son-in-law Mikael Minasyan planned to purchase Armavia. However, Eurnekian denied the rumors later.

Source: panarmenian.net

Zvartnots airport resumes services to Armavia

Armenia International Airports CJSC (Zvartnots) resumed services to Armavia company 4:30 pm, local time, the airport’s spokesman said.
“Armavia has transferred AMD 90 mln to Zvartnots. Details on the airport’s servicing of the air company flights will be clarified tomorrow, 11:00 am,” Gevorg Abrahamyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.
Dwelling on Armavia’s statement suggesting Zvartnots disapproves of the company’s new shareholder, the spokesman said the airport is unaware who the shareholder is.
“We ourselves would like to know his name to specify further relations with the air company,” he said.
Armenian national carrier Armavia has refused to reveal the name of the new shareholder of the company.
“That’s a business secret. We will announce the name when the time comes,” the company’s representative told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, conditioning the suspension of Zvartnots airport’s services to Armavia by the airport’s disapproval of the new shareholder.
Meanwhile, Zvartnots noted Armavia’s debts as the main reason behind the airport’s decision to halt servicing of the air company flights. The amount of Armavia’s debt exceeded the sum agreed on for over $1 million, bringing the total debt to $3,360 million.
As Armenian media outlets reported earlier, either owner of Zvartnots airport, Argentinean Armenian entrepreneur Eduardo Eurnekian, or Armenian president’s son-in-law Mikael Minasyan planned to purchase Armavia.

Source: panarmenian.net

Entrepreneur Eduardo Eurnekian not planning to buy Armavia

The owner of Zvartnots airport, Argentinean Armenian entrepreneur Eduardo Eurnekian has no intention to purchase Armavia air company. “I’m not planning to buy Armavia,” Eurnekian told journalists at FruitFull Armenia Yerevan-hosted agriculture forum.
The businessman said he seeks to continue inventing in Armenia’s winemaking sector, also meaning to expand investments to cover other fields.

Source: panarmenian.net

Zvartnots hi-tech airport terminal opens in Yerevan

In the framework of events dated to the 20th anniversary of Armenia’s independence, new terminal of Zvartnots airport was put into operation.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, ambassadors accredited to Armenia, as well as Armenian-born Argentine businessman Eduardo Eurnekian attended the opening ceremony on September 16.
At 34 thousand sqm, the hi-tech terminal, complete with VIP halls, 46 check-in counters, an extensive parking lot, will enable servicing of up to 3,5 mln passengers annually.
The construction of Zvartnots terminal, specifically designed for high earthquake stability, took USD160 mln in investments.

Source: panarmenian.net

Yerevan Airport Reconstruction Nearing Completion

An Argentine company managing Armenia’s main international airport pledged on Wednesday to essentially complete its multimillion-dollar reconstruction and more than double the airport capacity this year.

The Corporacion America group of Eduardo Eurnekian, an Argentine billionaire of Armenian descent, took over the Zvartnots airport near Yerevan in 2002 after signing a 30-year management contract with the Armenian government.

The agreement committed it to building a new airport terminal and modernizing other airport facilities left over from the Soviet era. The terminal’s arrivals section went into service in 2006, while work on the larger departures section is still going on.

Andranik Shikhkian, Zvartnots’s deputy managing director, told journalists that the construction will be complete by the end of this year. He said Eurnekian’s group, which operates over 30 airports across South America, has invested $160 million in the 34,000 square-meter facility.

According to Shikhkian, this will allow Zvartnots to handle up to 3 million passengers a year, up from 1.1 million passengers who used it last year. “Compared with Azerbaijan and Georgia, we will have a twice bigger capacity, both in terms of passenger traffic and use of modern technology,” he said.

Shikhkian added that the new terminal will also significantly speed up passenger check-in at Zvartnots. “In place of 24 check-in desks existing now we will have 46 ones,” he said. “Check-in lines have long been the main source of complaints by passengers.”

The official also expressed hope that the upgraded airport will attract more transit flights from Europe, the Middle East and Asia. “The airport can simultaneously accept up to 10 flights per hour,” he said. “Right now, we have up to five flights every hour.”

It remains to be seen whether the expensive reconstruction will have any impact on the cost of the airport’s ground services for airlines and the national Armavia carrier in particular. Armavia has long accused the Zvartnots management of setting exorbitant tariffs that are higher than even in western Europe.

As recently last March, Zvartnots delayed several Armavia flights over the private airline’s alleged failure to pay its outstanding debts. The two sides traded recriminations before settling the dispute.

“Our airport is much cheaper than the airports in, say, Vienna or London,” insisted Shikhkian. He stressed that the airport fees have not changed since 2002.

The Zvartnots complex is also expected to become soon home to Armenia’s first-ever tax-free zone that will mainly cater for domestically grown agricultural produce to be exported abroad. It will reportedly have warehouses equipped with refrigerators, packaging facilities and a food safety laboratory.

The creation of the tax haven is envisaged by Eurnekian’s 2001 agreement with the Armenian government. The Argentine tycoon, who has a warm rapport with Armenia’s current and former presidents, owns hundreds of hectares of vineyards and orchards in the Ararat Valley adjacent to the airport. 

Source: azatutyun.am