Prime Minister Receives Clarifications on Civil Aviation Sector Developments

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a remote consultation today regarding the current state and future prospects of Armenia's civil aviation sector. The President of the Civil Aviation Committee, Tatevik Revazyan, participated in the discussion via video conference.

Revazyan provided clarifications to Prime Minister Pashinyan about ongoing processes in the sector. She reported that a meeting of the European Flight Safety Team took place on May 12, 2020, resulting in a decision to include all aircraft operators registered in Armenia on the EU's safety list based on observations from the EU evaluation visit conducted in February of this year. According to the European Commission and the EU Flight Safety Committee, the reason for this decision was the continued inadequate oversight and incomplete certification functions carried out by the Armenian Civil Aviation Committee.

This decision restricts the rights of aircraft operators registered in Armenia to carry out flights to Europe (except for flights conducted for citizen repatriation, humanitarian, and medical purposes). It is noteworthy that these airlines will continue to operate flights to other countries. Additionally, the decision will not affect international airlines' operations of flights between the EU and Armenia and vice versa.

Revazyan mentioned that since the European Flight Safety Team meeting on November 20, 2019, the Committee has been implementing ongoing measures to improve the level of flight safety in Armenia, and the issue of changing the decision could be discussed in November 2022. In this context, EU aviation bodies have welcomed the Armenian government's commitment to enhancing the level of flight safety and expressed readiness for cooperation.

During the meeting, several issues related to the reforms in the Armenian Civil Aviation Committee were also discussed. Specific reference was made to involving qualified specialists in the structure, institutional, legislative, and technical measures, and several proposals were presented. The Committee Chair indicated that an inventory and diagnosis of existing issues in the structure had already been conducted, and solutions are being developed in this regard.

Nikol Pashinyan instructed the head of the Civil Aviation Committee to present an action plan for the committee's reforms within two weeks based on discussions with the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures.