EU has not blacklisted Armenian airlines, says Civil Aviation Committee's chief

The European Union does not have any decision for now to blacklist the airlines on the territory of Armenia, the head of the Civil Aviation Committee said today, commentiing on the reports that the European Commission has established a strict oversight over the agency.

According to Tatevik Revazyan, the problem isn't absolutely new, with the EU having launched the auditing only now based on a request by several air companies.

At a news conference on Monday, Revazyan explained special attitude to Armneia by the Union's interest in prioritizing the cooperation with the country.

″The cooperation with the EU is really very positive as they have helped us a lot, offering their recommendations. The comments in the press had slightly a wrong direction. What the international media said was 115 companies were on the blacklist, with  Armenia facing an increased oversight. They put the emphasies on Armenia instead of those 115 [airlines],″ she noted.

Revazyan said the interest in Armenia gained actuality after a recent presentation event in the EU. ″So they are now coming to see whether what we said was really true. We have raised all the problems while presenting also the proposed solutions and the timeframes. We need to fit into those timeframes now to demonstrate a prpogress,″ she added.

Revazyan also admittted that the low salaries compared to private airlines may be among the key causes of the problems in civil aviation.

″It has to do with resources. With the salaries being low indeed, the specialists prefer to work with private companies. It is practically difficult to exercise control on the required level; this is why we are planning concrete steps to propose a rise in salaries. We are not going to do that at the expense of the State Budget; we need to start charging sums for our services,″ she said.

Revazyan also addresed the plans for launching a national airline, adding that the Committe is considering a bid by one candidate company at the moment.

″If everything goes smooth, we will have a national airline with 388 seats,″ she added.

Addressing the situation with the airport in Gyumri, Revazyan stressed the importance of developing tourism locally, noting that the second largest city is not very actively engaged in the tourism industries to attract international airlines.