"SIBERIA" RUSSIAN AIR COMPANY BECAME MAIN AIR CARRIER IN ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Armenian government has passed a decision on conveying "Armenian Airlines" flights to "Armavia" company, of which "Siberia" Russian company holds 70% shares. As reported by "PolitSib.Ru," for a period of 10 years "Armavia" will get 29 out of the 36 air flights at present being executed by the "Armenian Airlines." These are itineraries to Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Odessa, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar, Nizhny Novgorod and Simferopol. The other 7 flights - to Saint Petersburg, Kiev, Paris, Athens, Vienna, Beirut and Dubai will pass to "International Armenian Airlines" company, established by French businessman Levon Baghdasarian in Yerevan a year ago. "Armavia" obtains rights for the routes under the condition of annually increasing air transportation volume not less than 8%. Moreover, "Armavia" has to pay $15 million to Armenia for the route network it got, and $4.5 out of these should be received within the coming 12 months. The contract also includes an item on re-equipment of the air fleet with modern European liners. As distinct from Russia, where blocking customs for air vehicles are in force, on the leased flights "Siberia" will almost surely put into operation more efficient planes than the Soviet ones. Especially that the air company invested into a regional center on engineering maintenance of "Airbus" and "Boeing" aircraft being founded in Armenia.