Nearly $50,000 Saved: Aghajanyan Discusses Transatlantic Flight for PM Pashinyan's Aircraft

Eduard Aghajanyan, the head of the National Assembly’s staff, addressed the question regarding the possibility of conducting a transatlantic flight with the aircraft serving Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on his Facebook page. Below is the full post:

“Yesterday, during the budget discussions in the National Assembly, in response to the question from LHK member Ani Samsonyan, which referred to the claims of the HETQ news outlet that it was indeed possible to conduct a transatlantic flight with the current aircraft, which would be cheaper in terms of expenses, I would like to elaborate further.

So, when calculating any flight, technical possibilities and economic justifications are evaluated:

1. The fuel tank capacity of the Government of Armenia’s A-319 aircraft is only 19 tons. This is sufficient for no more than 6 flight hours, during which the aircraft can cover up to 5200-5300 km.
2. It is possible to conduct transatlantic flights with this aircraft. However, according to ICAO safety standards, specifically ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards), this aircraft would have to plan its flight along coastal routes to cross the Atlantic Ocean. As a result, it would have to make two additional landings during flights from Shannon, Ireland, to Los Angeles and from New York to Yerevan. This would increase the total flight duration by about 5 hours. Considering the differences in fuel consumption rates between the G-550 and A-319, which exceeds a ton per hour, and the added hours, as well as the cost of fuel at about $900 per ton, nearly $40,000 was saved on fuel alone. Adding the expenses for 4 technical landings, a total of approximately $50,000 has been saved from the state budget.
3. The information regarding the lack of authorization for transatlantic flights by the crew is true. However, it is not at all related to the qualifications of the crew. As mentioned in point 2, the ICAO safety ETOPS standards require not only the capabilities of the aircraft but also the certification of the pilots operating that aircraft and the technical center servicing the aircraft accordingly. The pilots obtain this authorization after crossing the Atlantic twice with an instructor-pilot (one flight). However, in the absence of the appropriate aircraft, logically, neither have the pilots been certified, nor has the maintenance organization.
4. The issue of equipping the aircraft with additional tanks having a capacity of about 4 tons was discussed immediately after its acquisition. Structural modifications to any aircraft can only be performed by the manufacturer or an authorized facility. Installing additional tanks is associated with a structural modification, which costs several million euros. Therefore, it was deemed impractical, and now it is even less appropriate to spend several million euros for just one or two flights a year.”