On 15 July the Chairman of the Armenian Civil Aviation Committee, Tatevik Revazyan, confirmed that the low-cost Airline companies Wizzair from Hungary and Ryanair Airlines from Ireland were ready to enter the Armenian market in 2020. The two companies would only enter into the Armenian market if the government would remove the high tariffs on operating at the Armenian airports. “Every passenger on a flight in or out of the airport is taxed 10,000 drams (about $21), that is not a small amount of money,” she said, noting that the average price of a Ryanair ticket in Europe is about double that figure.

Revazyan also spoke of the necessity to improve the education for aviation and the facilities in the country. “The Aviation-Technical Academy of Civil Aviation is in a very bad condition. I am not convinced that our investors will make investments in our academy in particular, they would probably prefer to start a private business instead,” she said. Revazyan also mentioned that the plans on opening a workshop for the reconstruction of airplane parts in Armenia is being discussed with the investors which could create 1000 new jobs in the country.

Previously, on 3 July the Armenian government held a meeting dedicated to the development of civil aviation in the country. At the meeting, the draft for the Civil Aviation Development Concept of Armenia was introduced. “Previously I had the chance to state on many occasions that having practical national airlines in the modern world is one of the key components of a state. And of course, having Armenian airlines in the aviation market is the goal and desire of all of us,” underscored the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The long term goal of Armenia is to establish its own national airlines company. In 2013 the previous national airline Armavia which was owned by oligarch Mikhail Baghdasarov and which had the 10-year exclusive rights to domestic and international routes, declared bankruptcy. Armenia possesses only two very small airlines who are competing for the status of a national airline at the moment . Armenian Airways has two planes in total and flies only one route, Yerevan-Tehran; Aircompany Armenia also has two planes and flies a limited schedule to destinations in Russia and Israel. It recently started flights to Moscow’s Vnukovo airport following Russia’s ban on flights to Georgia.