FLIGHT SAFETY IN ARMENIA IS ZERO

Lragir.am
16 May 06

The Ardarutiun Faction of the National Assembly has reconsidered its
three-year-old proposal to set up an ad-hoc committee to study the
situation in the aviation of Armenia, stated Tatul Manaseryan May 16.

He says after the crash of A320 near Sochi the proposal has become
more urgent. Under the current geopolitical situation aviation is not
just a means of transportation for Armenia but a key and strategic
sphere, the development of which determines the development of
the other sectors of the economy. At the same time, the civil and
military aviations guarantee the country’s security and particularly
the economic security. In the meantime, Tatul Manaseryan says the
government does not pay due attention to aviation.

“There is zero word and figure on aviation in the state budget.

An entire sphere is left out of the budget. Whereas our aviation
can supply 1.5-2 budgets,” believes Tatul Manaseryan. Probably the
lack of governmental care makes the civil aviation to think about
the secondary instead of the primary. Instead of thinking about
legislative provisions it is busy spending another grant. According
to Manaseryan, Ardarutiun consulted the veterans of the Armenian
aviation, Dmitri Atbashyan and others, worked out an air legislation,
which was disapproved by the government, and the General Department
of Civil Aviation promised to work out its own project but it has
done nothing over the past 9 months.

This is not the worst thing, however. Tatul Manaseryan believes that
aviation cannot suffer losses. He states that in Yerevan they spend
10.5 million dollars to repair 1800 meters of runway, whereas in
Dushanbe they spend 2 million on the repair of 3000 meters of runway.

“They write down exaggerated numbers to show that they allegedly suffer
losses.” This is no less concerning. If in the Soviet Union 80 percent
of passenger transportation was carried out by the Armenian aviation,
now foreign airlines hold 70 percent. The remaining 30 percent is
carried out by the Armenian Armavia which, in fact, belongs to the
Russian Siberia Airlines and does not pay profit tax to the Armenian
state budget.” The opposition member of parliament is not against
private capital, however, he insists that control and regulation must
be the monopoly of the government.