Passenger Traffic to and from Armenia in January-August: Hetq

The Zvartnots International Airport in Yerevan welcomed and sent off 1,355,447 passengers from January to August of this year, according to the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia, which cited the airport's concessionaire, Armenia International Airports (AMI).

In the same period of 2020, 600,232 passengers used Zvartnots airport. It should be noted that since the state of emergency was declared in Armenia due to the coronavirus pandemic in March of the previous year, the number of passengers at the country's main airport saw a significant decline. The figures remained low due to the autumn war as well.

As seen in the graph below, the best passenger flow data in recent years were recorded in January-February 2020, but the numbers plummeted after March. In contrast, this year saw the opposite trend, where the lowest numbers in recent years were recorded in January-February, but gradually passenger traffic has increased, with August data being the second highest after the same month in 2019.

Overall, 2019 was the best year for Zvartnots, where the airport served 3,021,608 passengers according to its manager, AMI. The total number of passengers arriving and departing in the first eight months of 2019 was 1,972,953 according to the Civil Aviation Committee.

In the current situation, it is difficult to predict when Zvartnots will reach or surpass the pre-COVID and pre-war record figures, particularly the threshold of 3 million passengers, but it is evident that traffic is gradually recovering.

It is also worth noting that August is traditionally the best month for Zvartnots, and it is expected that the number of passengers will decline starting in September.

Regarding the comparison of departures and arrivals, from January to August this year, 701,750 passengers departed from Zvartnots while 653,697 arrived. Generally, the higher number of departures in this segment is due to the volume of those leaving for work abroad and leisure, but there is also the factor of emigration.

In any case, a conclusive assessment can only be made by examining the annual summary data, as a noticeable return of those who went abroad for work typically occurs in November-December.