Yerevan-Tbilisi Flights
Some great news for residents of Georgia and Armenia — flights between Yerevan and Tbilisi will soon be operating again. Instead of a 5-7 hour journey depending on your vehicle and your driver, it will now take 30-40 minutes in the air. Deduct the time spent in queues on the border and this is great news indeed. Georgia’s The Messenger has more.
By the end of December Armavia will conduct regular Tbilisi-Yerevan-Tbilisi flights. According to the news agency Novosti-Armenia the tickets price will be USD 50.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia has not had direct flights to Armenia. According to the Armenian Civil Aviation press secretary Jasmen Vilian the resumption of flights is a result of business partnerships between Armenians and Georgians. It is said in Armenia that after Russia closed its air space to Georgia, Georgians may visit its northern neighbour via Armenia.
The Armenian side sent a statement about introducing the flights to Georgia to the Georgian Civil Aviation Administration in the summer. The flights should have started in May but the process was postponed to the end of the year.
During his interview with Rezonansi the head of the Georgian Civil Aviation Administration Giorgi Mzhavanadze said that Armenian’s interest in operating flights to Georgia was a result of large numbers of Armenians visiting Georgia’s resorts last year. After the rehabilitation of the Batumi international airport Armenians might begin direct flights from Yerevan-Batumi as well.
Incidently, there have been direct flights between Yerevan and Tbilisi since independence. For example, the World Food Programme (WFP) used to run a commercial service for NGOs and diplomatic missions. Then I remember one Georgian airline trying something, but stopping when the 2003 Rose Revolution happened.
Anyway, the full item is here.
Hmmm, was just looking for details of the short lived Georgian company that wanted to operate Tbilisi-Yerevan flights, but instead found this from New Neighbours. Forgot about the damned airport tax of 10,000 AMD. At present exchane rates, therefore, the airport tax at Zvartnots would be 50 percent of cost of a one way ticket to Tbilisi, and 25 percent of a return ticket. Hope they do something about that.
I hope the issue of airport taxes on such a low cost ticket is resolved.
Comment by Onnik — December 14, 2006 @ 2:15 pm
True, on and off there have been direct flights between Tbilisi and Yerevan. The very recent ones were conducted by British Airways, that switched from London-Yerevan-Bishkek to London-Tbilisi-Yerevan route early this year (mid-January to end of March).
Comment by Shushan — December 14, 2006 @ 5:52 pm