Armenia, EU sign aviation agreement

PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Union (EU) and Armenia on Tuesday signed an aviation agreement which will allow all EU airlines to fly between Armenia and any EU member state.



The agreement, signed by French Minister of State, responsible for European Affairs Jean-Pierre Jouyet and Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, removes nationality restrictions in the existing bilateral air services agreements between EU member states and Armenia. Now any EU airline can operate flights between any EU member state and Armenia, the RA MFA press office told PanARMENIAN.Net



The EU has negotiated 35 such horizontal agreements with partner countries and thereby removed nationality restrictions in more than 600 bilateral air services agreements.



"The agreement recognizes that airlines in the EU are not any longer national airlines, and all of them will thus have non-discriminatory access to the air transport market between the EU and Armenia. This is an important step in our external aviation policy and a further building block in our policy toward neighboring countries," said European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani, who is responsible for transport policies.



The EU-Armenia agreement was a result of three years of negotiations.



Passenger numbers between the EU and Armenia increased from 166,000 in 2006 to 204,000 in 2007 with the main markets being France, Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic.



The agreement removes nationality restrictions in the existing bilateral air services agreements between EU member states and Armenia. Now any EU airline can operate flights between any EU member state and Armenia.