ARMENIA, EU SIGN AVIATION AGREEMENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.12.2008 18:04 GMT+04:00

/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.