On 16 October, the Irish low-cost airline RyanAir announced its first ever flights from Armenia, making it the 40th country in the RyanAir network.

The routes from Yerevan to Milan-Bergamo and Rome-Ciampino will start in January 2020, and two new routes from Yerevan to Berlin-Schönefeld and Gyumri to Memmingen will start in Summer 2020. “These four new routes will further promote Armenian tourism, and will deliver over 130,000 customers annually to/from two European countries to one of Europe’s fastest-growing tourism destinations,” said David O’Brien, Ryanair’s chief commercial officer.

Ryanair’s ticket prices are expected to be significantly lower than those of airlines already flying to Armenia. “Ryanair’s average fare for all routes across the year is something like 35 euros ($38.50),” noted O’Brien. “To celebrate the launch of its first Armenian airports, Ryanair has launched a seat sale with fares from just €29.99, for travel until May 2020, which must be booked by 18 October,” read a statement released by the company. 

The head of the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia Tatevik Revazyan said in regard to the starting of flights that the Civil Aviation Committee has drafted a bill that would exempt Ryanair from a fixed $21 tax levied from every airline ticket sold in the country. She was confident that the government will approve the bill and send it to the Armenian parliament in November.

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that RyanAir’s entrance into the Armenian market was an important achievement. He added that he was surprised that the tickets for the airline's flights are already on sale. 

The negotiations for RyanAir to operate in Armenia started on 15 July, parallel with the negotiations with the Hungarian Airlines company WizzAir. Revazyan said that the two companies would only enter into the Armenian market if the government would remove the high tariffs on operating to and from Armenian airports (Caucasus Watch reported).