Luchtzak Aviation, Belgium
Jan 16 2005

Armavia cancels flights to Europe: poor sales

SN30952 writes “Armenia’s flagship airline, owned by Russia’s
second-biggest Sibir airline, has cancelled weekend flights between
Yerevan and three major European cities, despite growing demand.

Armavia, the Russian-owned private carrier, stopped flying in
weekends to Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris as from this month,
immediately after obtaining exclusive rights to the flights from the
Armenian government.
Armavia cited poor ticket sales to justify the move. Armavia’s sole
Western European destination now is Paris.
The cancelled flights used to be operated by Armenian International
Airways, a small private company now facing uncertain future. Its
traffic rights expired last month and were transferred to Armavia
which thus effectively became the sole Armenian-based airline.
Or how to kill an airline?

Austrian Airlines, the third largest carrier of passengers to and
from Armenia, increased the frequency of its regular Vienna-Yerevan
flights. OS flies presently five days a week.”