On 13 August, the US Embassy in Armenia prohibited its employees from traveling with any Armenian airlines, and called on US citizens to do the same. The same decision was made by the Israeli embassy.
The prohibition of US Embassy employees to use the services of Armenian air carriers for official travel applies to the following companies, but is not limited to: Aircompany Armenia, Armenia Airways, Armenian Helicopters, Atlantis Armenian Airlines, Atlantis European Airways, Mars Avia and Skyball.
Speaking to tert.am, the Armenian expert on civil aviation issues Hakob Chagaryan that other countries would follow the examples of US and Israel because the pandemic has made all countries focus supporting their national airlines. He also said Turkey will take the same decision, banning the Armenian flights through its territory, and that even Russia might follow as well.
When asked whether the Armenian Civil Aviation Committee was taking steps to exclude Armenian airlines from the EU's “black list”, Chagaryan responded:
“I don't see [any evidence of that occurring]. The Prime Minister gave them two weeks to present a roadmap for action. I have not seen any action plan or anything else. I only saw that back in April last year, a distorted, flawed version of my concept was presented to the government as a new concept. The Civil Aviation Committee is not taking any real steps and is not able to take them."
To note, on 2 June, the European Commission banned all seven airlines registered in Armenia from carrying out regular flights to EU member states, saying that they do not meet international safety standards (Caucasus Watch reported). The EU’s Aviation Safety Agency is understood to have recommended the ban in November last year, because of what it views as the Armenian Civil Aviation Committee’s failure to ensure adequate oversight and licensing of the domestic airlines. The move sparked bitter recriminations between the Armenian government and its political opponents. The latter seized it to accuse the government of incompetence and mismanagement. Many critics also pointed out that bans were a result of the incompetence of the President of Armenia’s Civil Aviation Committee Tatevik Revazyan. Pashinyan dismissed the accusations and put the blame on the country’s former leadership, saying that it had for years failed to properly regulate the aviation sector (Caucasus Watch reported).
