http://arka.am-YEREVAN, March 19. /ARKA/. The license of Fly Arna airline has been suspended due to the lack of planes, Armenian Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Armen Simonyan said on Tuesday, responding to a question of Sisak Gabrielyan, an MP from the ruling Civil Contract party.
“If an airline does not have planes at its disposal – its license is suspended for up to 6 months. If the company does not solve the problems within the specified period the license is revoked,” Simonyan said in Parliament.
In response to a request to tell about the reasons for the problems that arose in the company, the deputy minister only reminded that other organizations, which have their own commercial secrets, are also related to the company.
At the same time, he assured that public information would, in any case, be provided.
“So far I can only say that the issue is being studied and that it is mainly financial,” Simonyan said.
Fly Arna is Armenia’s national airline, a joint venture between the Armenian National Interest Foundation (ANIF) and Air Arabia Group. In October 2021, the government allocated about $10 million for its establishment, which was used to increase the ANIF’s authorized capital.
At the beginning of June 2022, the air carrier received an air operator certificate (AOC) and a certificate for scheduled commercial air transportation, and on July 3 of the same year the first flight to Hurghada in Egypt was performed.
By the decision of the general meeting of shareholders of Armenian National Airlines CJSC (Fly Arna) in December, 2023, the charter capital was increased by AMD 2 billion (almost $5 million).