Air Armenia adds first B737-500 ahead of scheduled services launch

Air Armenia CEO faces new trial in embezzlement case

Armenia’s Court of Cassation in Yerevan has upheld an appeal related to the chief executive of Air Armenia (Yerevan), going against earlier verdicts in a case involving the alleged embezzlement of AMD681.9 million drams (USD1.45 million), local media reported.

Privately-owned Air Armenia suspended flight operations in October 2014 due to financial problems. Plans to restructure and relaunch the carrier came to nothing.

Arsen Avetisyan, its chief executive and owner of a 51% shareholding, had been charged with misappropriating the above sum, which had been collected from ticket sales and should have been deposited with the state as a departure tax in 2014 but allegedly was not. The amount was subsequently garnished from Air Armenia’s bank accounts.

A 2019 ruling at the Yerevan Court of First Instance acquitted Avetisyan after finding that he had not taken the funds for himself and therefore did not misappropriate them. The court found that no money had been illegally withdrawn from the company’s cash register or settlement account.

The General Prosecutor’s Office of Armenia filed an...

Armenia's Taron-Avia starts legal action to recover debts

New Armenian start-up looks to commence ops - report

Armenia not ready for a flag carrier

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...