Sorry, it wasn't a plane route: Avinyan on the closure of 'Fly Arna'

The national carrier 'Fly Arna' did not implement the reforms that were supposed to be carried out in time. Mayor of Yerevan Tigran Avinyan stated this during a press conference today, responding to a journalist's question about whether he feels guilty for the failure of 'Fly Arna' and the wasted tens of millions of dollars.

“Whoever used the services of the national carrier understands very well what quality we are talking about. Sorry, it wasn’t a plane route; finally, you could have flown from point X to point Y proudly with your national carrier. The only thing I regret in the history of 'Fly Arna' is that the reforms that were supposed to be implemented in time were not carried out,” said Avinyan.

It should be reminded that 'Fly Arna' was established in 2021 by the airline 'Air Arabia' and the Armenian National Interests Fund (ANIF) as the largest investment project of the fund (Tigran Avinyan served as the chairman of the ANIF board from 2019 to 2022). The airline ceased operations in January 2024, and in May 2024, the Armenian government decided to dissolve ANIF.

In 2022-2023, the Anti-Corruption Commission and the State Oversight Service of Armenia uncovered cases of abuse and embezzlement within the fund. The Investigative Committee is currently examining these cases. In 2023, the International Monetary Fund also identified issues related to reporting and governance at ANIF, leading to restrictions on its activities by the Armenian government.