ARMENIA TO SIGN OPEN SKY AGREEMENT WITH THE US BY LATE 2007

Noyan Tapan
May 23 2007

YEREVAN, MAY 23, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia will sign the Open Sky Agreement
with the US government by late 2007. Deputy head of the RA Civil
Aviation Main Department Artashes Bakhshian told NT correspondent
that it is for the first time that Armenia signs such an agreement.

Under the agreement, the companies to operate these flights must be
national carriers or carriers registered in this country, and they will
be chosen by the government of the given country. At the same time, the
government shall create conditions to allow the selected airlines to be
free in making decisions and to operate in a competitive environment.

In some cases, according to A. Bakhshian, the government may intervene:
particularly, if an airline charges an unsubstantiated discriminative
price or a low tariff is used at the expense of a state subsidy.

The World Bank takes the official position that the Armenian government
should assure the WB that it will remove a number of restrictions,
particularly, the Armenian airlines must have have equal opportunities
for competition.

Chile was the first country to test an "Open Sky" model in 1979,
the US did so in the 1980s.