Armavia cancels flights to Moscow, Krasnodar and Dubai

March 29, 2013 - 18:38 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia’s Armavia national carrier has already cancelled flights to Moscow, Krasnodar and Dubai. The company pledged to refund the price of the tickets.

“Armavia will possibly declare itself bankrupt due to the financial problems,” head of the General Department of the Civil Aviation Artyom Movsesyan earlier said, voicing skepticism over the government to extend the contract signed with the company.

The national carrier’s debts for securing air navigation services in Russia totals $288 000, a source in Russian aviation authorities told gazeta.ru.

Armavia issued a statement today, on March 28, announcing a decision to cease operations starting April 1, 2013.

“Armavia was established in 1996. It started operation of flights in 2001with only one aircraft. The company’s fleet was replenished with 3 planes in 2003, with 7 and 14 more planes in 2006 and 2007 respectively. However, many airline companies went bankrupt during the world economic and aviation crisis of 2008. Aviation is in need of continuous development. In the past three years, the owner of Armavia invested funds of other businesses to foster the development of the company. However, in the face of the current situation, the company resolved to halt the flights and start the bankruptcy proceedings. The company expresses gratitude to all its passengers and wishes them good luck,” Armavia’s press service said.