“ARMAVIA” REPLENISHES ITS FLEET

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 4 2006

YEREVANA, April 4. /ARKA/. The “Armavia” airline has replenished its
aircraft fleet with a new “A-319” plane.

President of the MIKA Limited Company Mikhail Bagdasariv reported that
a new airbus has for the first time come to Armenia. “We had airplanes
8-12 years aold before, whereas this one was produced a year ago,”
he said, Bagdasarov added that cutting-edge technologies are used in
this plane.

“The plane consumes less fuel and reduces the cost of flights, which
may influence the price of air-tickets,” Bagdasarov said.

“I would like to say that Armavia is working toward purchasing new
planes. On May 1, 2006, another new plane will come to Armenia, and
in March 2007 the airline’s fleet will be replenished with a third
plane,” he said.

Bagdasarov also reported that the airline expects a considerable
increase in the number of passengers.

According to him, keen competition exists in this field in Armenia.

“We believe that the latest technologies should be used for surviving
on this market today. Both planes and service must be of highest
quality,” he said.

“So we have almost refused to operate Soviet planes except for Yak-42,
which was produced by a modern technology, does not consume much fuel
and is allowed to carry out flights abroad,” Bagdasarov said. “We
will have two Yak-42 and five airbuses,” he said.

He also reported that “Armavia” started cooperating with “Air
France”. “We will carry out three joint flights to Paris, and Armavia
will carry out 1-2 flights to Paris by itself,” he said.