Air Armenia chief says bankruptcy ruled out despite financial problems

In an interview with Tert.am, Air Armenia CEO Arsen Avetisyan agreed that damping policies by Russian airlines may be the reason behind the company’s financial difficulties, but he denied the report about a possible bankruptcy.

Mr Avetisyan, reports say that the company has debts amounting to 5 million Dollars and may be declared bankrupt soon. Also, problems with the purchase of aircrafts were reported.

I don’t know who commissioned [such a report], as this is the second time I hear disinformation. Perhaps they feel happy that we have problems … I don’t know who does it.

So you actually confirm that you have problems.

We have technical problems; our A320 aircraft has flown to Amsterdam through Paris for a planned technical maintenance checkup. The second plane was due to leave for a shorter period, and it is there at the moment. I don’t have an aircraft in Dubai, as the report said, so the second plane will return after the checkup. The other plane will be there for 21 days. It wasn’t planned, so we are not able to serve the scheduled flight with only one aircraft. Hence we have merged two flights. Yes, we do have problems, and I have to borrow a plane from partner companies to secure the flight till my aircraft returns.

And what about financial problems?

Any air company around the globe has financial problems, but given that we have enough means in circulation, we manage to resolve our financial problems. So bankruptcy is out of the question.

You say any air company has financial problems. So don’t you attribute that to damping policies by Russian airlines?

Yes, those statements may be linked to certain steps by the competitors. And the letter which I received from Rosaeronavigatsia was very conscientiously and affably written. But the information published was absurd. And it caused financial problems, as all debitors now avoid paying money to us. They say we may not be able to serve flights, causing them to cover the return [costs] of air tickets on their own. So they all began demanding the money back, afraid that our company may go bankrupt.